«— 


CIVIL   ENG.    DEPT. 


or 

*H«J»ARTMENT  OF  CIVIL  ENGINEERS* 
.  CALH^ORNIA 


BOUNDARIES  AND 
LANDMARKS 

A  PRACTICAL  MANUAL 


BY 
A.    C.    MULFORD 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 

D.  VAN    NOSTRAND    COMPANY 

25  PARK   PLACE 

1912 


77? 


Engineering 
Library 


COPYRIGHT,  1912, 

BY 
D.  VAN  NOSTRAND   COMPANY 


Stanbopc  ifcress 

F.    H.GILSON    COMPANY 
BOSTON,  U.S.A. 


DEDICATED   TO 

W.   H.   C.   PYNCHON 

AS   IT   WAS   THROUGH  HIS   COOPERATION  AND  ADVICES 

THAT  THE   COMPILATION   OF   THIS    MANUAL 

WAS  MADE   POSSIBLE 


664759 


PREFACE. 


THIS  manual  is  intended  to  familiarize  the  surveyor  with 
the  different  types  of  old  boundaries  that  exist  throughout 
the  country.  A  great  deal  has  been  written  on  this  general 
subject,  especially  in  reference  to  the  public  lands  of  the 
West.  Very  little,  however,  is  being  done  on  the  convey- 
ances of  the  Eastern  States,  and  it  is  my  hope  to  furnish 
sometlu'ng  which  may  prove  useful  to  those  who  are  likely 
to  meet  with  cases  of  this  sort.  No  attempt  is  made  to 
describe  how  the  lines  should  be  measured;  the  intent  is 
rather  to  furnish  suggestions  as  to  the  method  of  locating 
the  line  to  be  measured  —  in  short,  finding  it.  It  is  far 
more  important  to  have  faulty  measurements  on  the  place 
where  the  line  truly  exists,  than  an  accurate  measurement 
where  the  line  does  not  exist  at  all. 

A.  C.  M. 

NEW  YORK, 
Sept.,  1912. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  WORK  AND  TRAINING  OF  THE  SURVEYOR i 

II.  THE   DESCRIPTION   OF   PROPERTY.     SIMPLE   DEEDS   WITHOUT 

DIMENSIONS 4 

III.  THE  RELATIVE  LEGAL  VALUE  OF  EVIDENCES  OF  BOUNDARY..  10 

IV.  LANDMARKS.    STAKES  AND  STONES 13 

V.  LANDMARKS    (continued).     MARKED    TIMBER.    DITCHES    AND 

BALKS 23 

VI.  LANDMARKS  (concluded).    FENCES  AND  WALLS 31 

VII.  DEEDS  WITH  COMPLETE  DESCRIPTIONS 37 

VIII.   SOURCES  OF  ERROR  IN  DESCRIPTIONS 46 

IX.  THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  SURVEYOR  AND  THE  LAWYER 53 

X.  HOUSE  LOTS 56 

XI.  HOUSE  LOTS  (concluded) 63 

XII.  HIGHWAY  RECORDS 71 

XIII.  RE-RUNNING  OLD  HIGHWAY  RECORDS 79 

XIV.  LAYING  OUT  NEW  ROADS 84 

XV.  RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  THE  SURVEYOR 87 


vn 


Boundaries  and  Landmarks 


CHAPTER  I..  .  ;   ,    --,-,-   -.• 
THE  WORK  AND  TRAINING  OF  THE  SURVEYOR. 

As  compared  with  the  vocation  of  the  civil  engineer,  the 
calling  of  the  surveyor  has  always  been  regarded  as  com- 
paratively easy  and  simple.  This  is  true  not  only  in  the 
popular  conception  of  the  two  lines  of  work,  but  also  in  the 
view  taken  of  them  in  text-books  and  in  courses  of  instruc- 
tion. The  training  of  the  surveyor  consists  essentially 
in  practice  in  turning  angles,  measuring  lines  and  getting 
over  obstructions,  to  which  are  added  rather  meager  sug- 
gestions on  the  subjection  of  the  compass  and  the  re-run- 
ning of  old  surveys.  He  is  considered  preeminently  a 
measurer  of  land.  This  is  very  true,  and  in  certain  locali- 
ties and  under  certain  conditions  this  may  compose  almost 
the  entire  work  of  the  surveyor.  But  in  the  vast  majority 
of  cases  the  actual  measuring  of  land  forms  the  smaller 
portion  of  his  duties.  His  hardest  work  is  often,  to  use  a 
colloquial  phrase,  to  "  find  the  land  "  to  be  surveyed. 

In  a  large  part  of  our  land,  through  the  generations  past, 
the  precise  boundaries  of  holdings  have  received  little  atten- 
tion. In  the  years  when  land  was  worth  comparatively 
little,  when  there  was  little  money  to  be  spared  from  the 


2  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

necessities  of  life  for  surveys,  and  when  the  surveys,  when 
made,  were  very  crude,  little  attention  was  given  to  the 
establishment  or  the  maintenance  of  boundaries.  Loose, 
faulty  and  ignorant  conveyances,  the  use  of  perishable 
J&ildmarj^s  pr  4<>  landmarks  at  all,  the  temptation  to  build 
iences  ".off,  line  "  for  a  dozen  reasons,  good  and  bad,  and 
innumerable  x> trier l  •  things  have  conspired  to  render  the 
boundaries  of  land  the  most  uncertain  of  all  things. 

We  have  to-day  fully  entered  upon  the  era  of  high  land 
values.  The  high  prices  paid  by  the  wealthy  for  lands 
from  which  to  form  estates  have  revolutionized  the  meth- 
ods of  handling  realty.  The  title  of  all  property  must  be 
absolutely  guaranteed  and  payment  is  usually  made  by 
the  acre.  As  a  result  heavy  demands  are  made  upon  the 
surveyor  who  finds  himself  confronted  by  two  necessities, 
first,  the  necessity  of  making  an  extremely  accurate  set  of 
measurements  and,  secondly,  the  necessity  of  defining 
clearly  the  boundaries  of  the  land  which  he  must  measure 
-  and  the  latter  is  by  far  the  harder  task.  These  prob- 
lems he  must  work  out  single-handed  and  with  the  fear  of 
failure  shadowing  him  day  by  day  and  hour  by  hour. 
Since  no  two  problems  present  exactly  the  same  complica- 
tions, it  is  useless  for  any  one  to  attempt  to  lay  out  any 
fixed  rules  of  procedure,  yet  it  may  be  fairly  said  that 
from  experience  each  surveyor  acquires  a  certain  amount 
of  definite  information  concerning  boundaries  and  land- 
marks and  certain  definite  conceptions  concerning  the  rela- 
tive importance  of  different  kinds  of  evidence,  both  direct 


THE  WORK  AND  TRAINING  OF  THE  SURVEYOR          3 

and  circumstantial.  He  is  compelled  to  formulate  for  his 
own  use  certain  general  methods  of  procedure,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  methods  worked  out  by  different  sur- 
veyors bear  a  much  closer  resemblance  to  each  other  than 
would  be  supposed  at  first  thought. 

As  far  as  my  observation  goes,  in  his  preparatory  studies 
the  surveyor  receives  little  help  or  suggestion  to  enable 
him  to  grapple  with  this  important  but  elusive  part  of  his 
work.  The  intention  of  this  treatise  is  to  endeavor  to  meet, 
in  a  small  and  tentative  manner,  this  very  distinct  need. 
A  good  deal  has  been  written  on  this  general  subject  with 
reference  to  the  public  lands  of  the  West,  but  little  has  been 
done  in  this  line  in  connection  with  the  ordinary  convey- 
ances of  the  eastern  United  States.  My  hope  is  to  furnish 
something  which  may  prove  useful  to  those  who  are  des- 
tined to  wrestle  with  problems  of  this  nature.  No  attempt 
will  be  made  to  describe  methods  of  measuring  the  line; 
the  intention  is  to  furnish  suggestions  for  finding  the  line 
which  is  to  be  measured.  For  after  all,  when  it  comes  to 
a  question  of  the  stability  of  property  and  the  peace  of 
the  community,  it  is  far  more  important  to  have  a  some- 
what faulty  measurement  of  the  spot  where  the  line  truly 
exists  than  it  is  to  have  an  extremely  accurate  measure- 
ment of  the  place  where  the  line  does  not  exist  at  all. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  PROPERTY.    SIMPLE  DEEDS 
WITHOUT  DIMENSIONS. 

THE  description  of  property  by  landmarks  and  by  bound- 
aries is  very  ancient.  A  special  curse  is  pronounced  in 
the  Old  Testament  against  the  man  who  shall  remove  his 
neighbor's  landmark,  while  a  very  large  part  of  the  Book 
of  Joshua  is  occupied  by  the  description  of  the  various 
pieces  of  land  allotted  to  the  different  houses  of  the  Israel- 
ites. While  the  chief  importance  was  put  on  the  landmark, 
yet  it  is  plain  that  there  was  felt  a  need  of  some  further 
concrete  description  of  the  land.  This  feeling  has  increased 
with  the  growth  of  civilization,  until  to-day  we  have  arrived 
at  the  guaranteed  title  and  the  detailed  map  which  accom- 
panies it.  The  need  of  such  descriptions  is  intensified  by 
the  habitual  ignorance  of  boundaries  which  is  to  be  found 
in  those  who  have  occupied  land  for  many  years.  Every 
surveyor  has  had  numberless  cases  where  the  owners  have 
been  absolutely  unable  to  follow  out  the  boundaries  of 
their  land  even  approximately,  and  equally  numerous  cases 
where  boundaries  pointed  out  in  all  confidence  and  cer- 
tainty have  been  found  to  be  grossly  inaccurate.  A 
written  description  on  the  other  hand,  while  it  may  be 
originally  faulty  and  while  it  is  liable  to  clerical  error  in 

4 


THE   DESCRIPTION  OF   PROPERTY  5 

copying,  is  free  from  the  personal  equation  —  it  is  free  from 
preconceived  ideas  and  it  does  not  forget  with  the  lapse  of 
years. 

The  surveyor,  then,  is  driven  at  once  to  supplement  and 
correct  the  personal  information  furnished  him  by  every- 
thing in  the  way  of  recorded  descriptions  on  which  he  can 
lay  his  hands. 

These  records  are  of  three  kinds: 

1.  Records  of  the  piece  of  land  in  question. 

2.  Records  of  the  private  lands  which  bound  it. 

3.  Records  of  the  public  lands  which  bound  it,  in  the 
form  of  highways,  etc. 

To  the  above  boundaries  should  perhaps  be  added  bound- 
aries by  water,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  boundaries  by 
water  are  from  their  shifting  nature  essentially  without  the 
established  records  found  in  the  three  previous  cases.  The 
law  prescribes  clearly  the  course  to  be  followed  in  surveying 
along  water  boundaries. 

The  records  of  the  land  in  question  and  of  the  private 
lands  adjoining  are,  of  course,  the  deeds  which  conveyed 
the  properties  to  their  owners.  These  deeds  are  to  be 
found  in  the  hands  of  the  owners  or  in  certain  places  where 
they  have,  for  one  reason  or  another,  deposited  them.  Cer- 
tified copies  of  them  are  also  to  be  found  (unless  the  deed 
has  gone  unrecorded),  fully  indexed,  in  the  Office  of  the 
County  Clerk,  where  they  are  open  to  public  inspection. 
To  these  records  must  be  added  such  former  maps  and 
"  cards  of  land  "  as  may  have  been  made  and  preserved. 


6  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

They  are  a  great  help  when  they  can  be  obtained,  but  they 
are  usually  few  and  far  between. 

The  records  of  the  public  lands  adjoining  are  usually 
records  of  Town  Highways  or  County  Highways,  to  be 
found  with  the  Town  and  County  clerks  respectively.  In 
the  case  of  municipal  surveys  there  are  records  of  streets, 
parks,  etc.,  which  are  to  be  found  with  the  proper  city 
officials. 

The  fundamental  description  of  property,  however,  is  to 
be  regarded  as  the  DEED,  and  it  is  necessary  first  to  con- 
sider the  nature  and  intention  of  this  instrument  in  order 
to  understand  why  it  is  so  often  disappointing  and  deficient 
from  the  surveyor's  standpoint. 

A  deed  is  essentially  a  lawyer's  not  a  surveyor's  docu- 
ment. Its  intention  is  to  make  the  possession  of  a  certain 
piece  of  land  sure  to  the  owner  forever,  not  to  give  a  mi- 
nute description  of  the  land  for  the  comfort  of  the  surveyor. 
For  legal  reasons  some  lawyers  prefer  to  omit  from  a  deed 
all  data  of  direction  and  length  of  the  boundaries,  describ- 
ing it  only  by  adjoiners  and  landmarks  or  by  adjoiners 
only.  Such  a  deed,  after  stating  the  names  of  the  seller 
and  buyer,  the  amount  of  compensation,  the  date  of  the 
transfer  and  the  town,  county  and  state  where  the  land  is 
situated,  would  proceed  to  the  description  somewhat  as 
follows: 

"  Beginning  at  the  Northwest  corner  of  the  property  to 
be  conveyed  where  it  adjoins  the  Highway  leading  from 
M to  N and  running  thence  in  an  Easterly  direc- 


THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  PROPERTY          7 

tion  along  the  land  of  William  Smith  until  it  comes  to  the 
land  of  Richard  Jones,  thence,  in  a  Southerly  direction 
along  the  land  of  the  said  Richard  Jones  to  a  large  stone 
at  the  Southeast  corner  of  the  land  being  conveyed  where 
it  adjoins  the  land  of  Richard  Jones  and  land  now  or  late 
of  John  Brown,  thence  in  a  Westerly  direction  along  the 
land  now  or  late  of  John  Brown  to  the  East  side  of  the 
aforesaid  Highway,  thence  in  a  Northerly  direction  along 
the  Easterly  side  of  the  aforesaid  Highway  to  the  point  or 
place  of  beginning,  Containing  within  the  said  bounds 
Forty  and  one-half  acres  of  land  be  the  same  more  or  less." 

Then  usually  follow  references  to  the  records  of  earlier 
transfers  of  the  same  land,  showing  continuity  of  title  and 
various  other  matter  according  to  the  particular  nature  of 
the  deed.  Finally  come  the  signatures  of  the  grantors,  the 
acknowledgment  before  a  Notary  Public  and  the  County 
Clerk's  memorandum  of  public  record. 

It  is  argued  that  the  above  description  clearly  and  con- 
cisely conveys  all  the  land  lying  in  the  four-sided  area 
bounded  by  Smith,  Jones,  Brown  and  the  highway  without 
raising  any  questions  or  controversies;  while  if  directions 
and  distances  were  given  they  might  fall  short  of  or  over- 
lap the  known  boundaries  of  the  adjoiners,  in  one  case 
leaving  unclaimed  gores  of  land  and  in  the  other  leading  to 
boundary  controversies.  Nevertheless,  the  surveyor  is  ex- 
pected to  take  this  deed  and  from  it  define  the  land  with 
the  greatest  clearness  and  accuracy. 

It  is  probable  and  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  there  are 


8  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

two  standpoints  from  which  the  surveying  of  the  ab< 
piece  of  land  may  be  regarded.  In  the  first  place  this  IE 
may  be  surveyed  "  as  occupied  "  or  "  as  found  in  poss 
sion."  This  means  that  it  is  to  be  surveyed  according 
the  present  standing  boundaries  between  the  land  and 
four  adjoiners,  no  attempt  being  made  to  raise  the  dan£ 
ous  question  as  to  whether  the  fences,  etc.,  occupy  to-< 
the  original  boundary  lines.  If  this  method  is  satisfact 
to  all  parties  interested,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  v 
the  land  should  not  be  measured  and  marked  as  the  bou 
aries  stand.  But  to  guard  against  complications  in 
years  to  come,  the  map  or  description  should  be  clee 
marked  "  surveyed  as  occupied  "  or  "  surveyed  as  founc 
possession  "  or  "as  the  fences  now  stand  "  and  the  d 
given.  This  will  prevent  misunderstandings  which  mi 
arise  from  the  survey  being  subsequently  used  to  se 
boundary  disputes. 

The  other  method,  which  is  generally  adopted  as 
correct  one,  is  to  endeavor  to  determine  the  boundaries 
the  land  "  as  originally  intended  to  be  conveyed." 
eight  cases  out  of  ten  all  parties  would  prefer  to  get  b 
to  the  original  boundaries  as  they  stood  at  the  time  of 
early  transfers.     This  is  all  the  more  desirable  since 
deed  made  out  yesterday  is  very  apt  to  follow  closely 
verbatim,  the  wording  of  the  early  descriptions.     In  a 
of  boundary  controversies  this  method  must  always 
followed.     In  any  case  it  does  no  harm  to  know  the 
cient  conditions,  since  it  is  a  very  simple  matter  for 


THE  DESCRIPTION  OF  PROPERTY  9 

the  parties  concerned  to  set  aside  the  old  boundaries  in 
favor  of  the  new,  if  they  believe  this  to  be  the  wiser  course. 
For  this  reason  throughout  this  treatise  it  will  be  taken 
for  granted  that  the  surveyor  is  trying  to  get  back  to  the 
boundaries  of  the  land  "as  originally  intended  to  be 
conveyed." 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  RELATIVE  LEGAL  VALUE  OF  EVIDENCES  OF 
BOUNDARY. 

THE  description  in  the  preceding  chapter  may  be  regarded 
as  fairly  representing  that  very  large  class  of  descriptions 
in  which  no  dimensions  are  given  but  where  the  land  is 
described  by  adjoiners  and  landmarks.  Therefore  it  is 
manifest  that  the  decisions  of  the  surveyor  must  be  based 
on  two  kinds  of  evidence  only: 

1.  Landmarks  in  the  field. 

2.  The  claims  of  the  adjoiners. 

The  subject  of  landmarks  must  be  taken  up  in  detail  sep- 
arately, while  the  same  laws  which  govern  the  description 
of  the  land  in  question  will  also  apply  to  the  descriptions  of 
the  adjoiners'  lands. 

Before  going  farther  it  may  be  well  to  note  briefly  the 
order  of  importance  which  the  law  assigns  to  the  different 
kinds  of  evidence  which  come  under  the  cognizance  of  the 
surveyor. 

In  a  book  entitled  "  The  Law  of  Operations  Preliminary 
to  Construction  in  Engineering  and  Architecture  "  by  John 
Cassan  Wait,  M.C.E.,  LL.B  (John  Wiley  &  Sons,  1900),  the 
author  has  taken  up  very  fully  from  a  legal  standpoint 
the  problems  of  the  surveyor.  A  few  quotations  from  the 
chapter  entitled  "  Description.  Conflict  of  Calls  "  throw 

10 


EVIDENCES  OF  BOUNDARY  II 

much  light  on  the  relative  value  of  the  evidence  in  ques- 
tion. Mr.  Wait  says: 

"  The  calls  as  generally  adopted  to  locate  a  survey  are 
in  the  following  order,  viz.:  (i)  monuments  or  marks  on 
the  ground;  (2)  calls  for  ad  joiners;  (3)  courses  and  dis- 
tances; (4)  quantity  or  area.  If  the  marks  found  upon 
the  ground  conflict  with  the  calls  for  adjoiners,  with  the 
courses  and  distances,  and  with  the  area,  the  marks  upon 
the  ground,  i.e.,  the  monuments,  must  still  govern. 

"  The  monuments  themselves  need  not  exist,  for  where 
they  are  gone  they  may  be  supplied  by  proofs  of  their 
former  existence. 

"  The  rule  is  well  established  that  where  land  is  de- 
scribed by  courses  and  distances,  and  also  by  calls  for 
adjoiners,  the  latter  will  govern  if  there  be  a  discrepancy 
and  there  are  no  monuments. 

"  The  third  factor  in  order  of  importance  is  the  course, 
which  is  usually  held  to  govern  the  distance. 

"  As  quantity  or  area  is  directly  dependent  on  courses 
and  distances,  being  calculated  from  them,  it  should  be 
controlled  by  them." 

Under  the  general  head  of  Marks  in  the  Field  the  same 
author  says: 

"  The  highest  and  best  evidence  of  the  location  of  a 
tract  of  land  is  that  furnished  by  the  monuments  found  on 
the  ground  and  which  have  been  made  for  that  particular 
tract. 

"The  line  originally  run,  fixed  and  marked  is  the  true 


12  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

boundary  line  that  will  control  irrespective  of  any  mis- 
takes or  errors  in  running  and  marking  the  line. 

"  The  marks  on  the  ground  of  an  old  survey,  indicating 
the  lines  originally  run,  are  the  best  evidence  of  the  loca- 
tion of  the  survey. 

"  The  position  of  old  fences  may  be  considered  in  ascer- 
taining disputed  boundaries.  As  between  the  old  bound- 
ary fences  and  any  survey  made  for  the  monuments  after 
dispute,  the  fences  are  by  far  the  better  evidence  of  what 
the  lines  of  the  lot  actually  were." 

The  first  duty  of  the  surveyor  in  running  out  a  descrip- 
tion without  dimensions  must  therefore  be  to  look  for 

1.  Landmarks  especially  named  for  the  piece  of  land  in 
question,  such  as  the  "  large  stone  "  in  the  foregoing  de- 
scription ; 

2.  The  marks  of  a  previous  survey; 

3.  Indications  of  old  fences. 

If  he  cannot  find  sufficient  evidence  in  one  or  more  of 
these  classes  he  should  take  up  the  claims  of  adjoiners,  and 
if  these  again  prove  insufficient  for  locating  the  line  he 
should  urge  all  parties  interested  to  settle  upon  a  new 
boundary  line  by  common  agreement.  But  the  search  for 
the  landmarks  must  come  first. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LANDMARKS. 
STAKES   AND    STONES. 

CERTAIN  landmarks  may  be  specifically  mentioned  in  a 
description.  These  may  perhaps  be  called  special  land- 
marks and  must  be  identified  as  far  as  possible  from  the 
characteristics  named  in  that  description.  But  beside  these 
there  are  a  large  number  of  general  marks  not  mentioned 
perhaps  in  the  deed,  but  which  are  nevertheless  of  the 
greatest  possible  value.  Yet  there  can  be  no  hard  and 
fast  classification  of  these,  because  they  vary  greatly  with 
locality.  On  Long  Island,  where  the  most  of  my  own  work 
lies,  there  are  certain  marks  which  are  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance, yet  their  use  is  confined  largely,  if  not  entirely,  to 
Long  Island.  From  the  great  abundance  of  yellow  locust 
and  the  great  capacity  of  its  wood  for  resisting  decay,  it  is 
used  almost  exclusively  for  surveyors'  stakes  in  this  section. 
"  To  a  locust  stake  "  is  the  typical  phrasing  of  a  Long 
Island  description.  It  is  preeminently  the  surveyor's  mark 
for  the  locality,  yet  it  is  manifestly  not  a  landmark  for 
regions  where  the  yellow  locust  does  not  grow.  For  the 
reason  that  stones  of  glacial  origin  are  plentiful  in  the  hills 
of  the  North  Shore  and  scarce  on  the  plains  of  the  center  and 

the  South  Shore  the  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  stones 

13 


BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 


as  indicating  old  boundaries  differs  considerably  in  localities 
actually  separated  by  perhaps  only  a  dozen  miles.  The 
nature  of  landmarks  or,  more  accurately  speaking,  of  the 
marks  employed  to  indicate  a  boundary,  may  therefore 
vary  greatly  with  the  locality,  and  it  is  imperative  that 
the  surveyor  should  at  once  familiarize  himself  with  the 
usages  which  prevail  in  the  section  where  he  is  working. 
There  are,  however,  certain  kinds  of  landmarks  which  are 
widespread  in  their  general  use,  though  local  custom  may 

modify  even  these  somewhat. 
The  following  may  be  regarded, 
I  think,  as  the  most  important: 

The  stake.  —  A  stake  of  some 
sort,  driven  down  to  mark  a  corner 
or  a  point  where  the  course  breaks, 
is  one  of  the  most  universal 
landmarks.  Besides  the  "  corner 
stakes  "  one  or  more  "  line  stakes" 
are  frequently  driven  at  different 
points  on  a  long  straight  line  to 
assist  in  following  its  direction. 

Stake  and  stone.  —  A  stake  is 
often  reinforced  and  emphasized 
by  having  a  stone  laid  beside  it, 
as  shown  by  Fig.  i.  Sometimes  there  is  a  stone  placed  on 
either  side,  as  shown  by  Fig.  2,  and  at  times  there  are  found 
four  stones  placed  symmetrically  around  a  stake,  like  in 
Fig.  3.  Sometimes  there  is  a  little  irregular  pile,  as  shown 


FIG.  i. 


Stake  and  stone 
corner. 


LANDMARKS 


FIG.  2.     Stone  placed  on  either  side  of  the  stake. 


FIG.  3.     Four   stones   placed  sym-     FIG.  4.     Irregular  pile  of  stones  used 
metrically  around  a  stake.  for  a  corner. 


1  6 


BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 


by  Fig.  4.  The  stone  and  stake  are  more  frequently  used 
at  prominent  angles  of  a  piece  of  land,  shown  by  Fig.  i. 
There  seems  to  be  little  question  that  in  these  cases  the 
stake  is  the  actual  corner  —  the  stone  simply  emphasizes  it. 
The  stone.  —  A  stone  set  up  for  a  landmark  is  a  very 
ancient  way  of  defining  land,  but  like  many  ancient  cus- 
toms it  is  very  vague. 
In  sections  where  large 
stones  are  so  scarce  as 
to  make  them  valuable 
for  marks,  a  common 
custom  is  to  place  the 
stone  or  heap  of  stones 
squarely  on  the  corner. 
The  center  seems  to 
be  the  angle  point. 
Such  a  large  stone 
frequently  defines  a 
corner  in  unfenced 
land  (Figs,  i  and  5). 
In  other  places,  more  usually  in  fenced  land,  there  are 
stones  used  as  markers  in  a  very  different  way.  In  these 
cases  the  owner  of  a  piece  of  land  selects  a  large  stone 
having  two  faces  meeting  at  approximately  the  same  angle 
as  do  the  two  courses  which  join  at  the  corner  which  he 
intends  to  mark.  He  then  places  the  stone  entirely  on  his 
own  land,  fitting  the  angle  of  the  stone  into  the  angle  of  the 
courses,  so  that  the  two  faces  coincide  with  these  courses 


FIG.  5.     A  large  stone  used  as  a  corner. 


LANDMARKS  17 

—  Fig.  6  shows  such  a  case.  In  case  a  stone  with  suitable 
faces  cannot  be  found  or  in  case  the  angle  is  of  more  than 
1 80  degrees,  he  frequently  takes 
a  stone  with  one  strong  angle  and 
places  this  angle  coincident  with 
the  point  of  junction  of  the 
courses,  as  you  will  see  by  Fig.  7. 
Where  well-marked  fences  are 
still  standing  it  is  easy  to  interpret 
this  corner.  Sometimes  the  stone 
is  so  happily  shaped  that  the  FlG.'  6.  A  large  stone  having 
meaning  is  clear,  but  where  there  two  faces'  meeting  at  aP- 

proximately  the  same  angle, 

is  the  slightest  trace  of  doubt,  as  do  the  courses  that  join 
prompt  inquiry  should  be  made  at  that  P°mt- 
as  to  who  originally  placed  the  stone.  As  far  as  the  author 
has  been  able  to  observe,  these  stones  present  some  or  all 
of  the  following  characteristics:  (i)  they  possess  one  par- 
ticularly conspicuous  angle,  (2)  they  have  every  appearance 


FIG.  7.     A  sharp  pointed  stone  placed  at  the  junction  of  the  courses. 

of  having  been  placed  artificially,  (3)  they  are  usually  on 
end  or  on  edge.  The  presence  of  these  characteristics  will 
generally  suggest  when  this  form  of  marking  has  been 
used,  though  the  common  corner  stone  may  sometimes 


1 8  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

present  some  of  the  same  characteristics.  These  private 
angle  stones  have  been  mistaken  for  common  corner  stones 
and  the  station  made  over  the  center,  where  there  was  no 
possible  doubt  that  it  should  have  been  made  at  the  edge. 
In  such  cases  the  surveyor  should  collect  all  the  evidence 
he  can  and  then  decide  in  favor  of  the  balance  of  proba- 
bility. 

Fence  stones.  —  There  is  one  other  class  of  stones 
which  is  to  be  found  in  some  sections  and  which  is  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Reference  is  made  to  the  so-called 
"  fence  stones."  In  certain  sections  the  oldest  fences  were 
almost  invariably  of  the  zigzag  rail  type  known  as  "  worm," 
"  snake  "  or  "  Virginia  rail."  Under  the  apex  of  each 
zigzag,  where  the  ends  of  the  rails  crossed,  it  was  the  cus- 
tom to  place  a  stone  in  order  to  raise  the  lower  rail  from 
the  ground  and  prevent  its  decay.  This  is  particularly 
true  on  Long  Island.  The  old  fences  have  long  since  dis- 
appeared and  new  fences  have  been  erected  in  their  place, 
or  it  may  be  that  hedgerow  and  forests  have  reclaimed 
their  own;  but  there  the  ancient  stones  lie  in  two  parallel 
rows,  the  individuals  of  one  row  alternating  with  those  of 
the  other.  The  line  always  ran  down  the  center  of  such  a 
fence  and  therefore  now  lies  midway  between  these  two 
parallel  lines  of  stones.  The  points  at  which  the  line 
breaks  are  to  be  found  by  ranging  out  the  rows,  the  course 
changing  where  the  range  of  the  fence  stones  changes. 
It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that  where  these  stones 
lie  on  steep  earth  hillsides  they  have  a  tendency  to  slide 


LANDMARKS 


down  hill.  Also  there  are  few  people  who  have  the  ability 
to  "  line  a  fence  "  straight 
across  hill  and  hollow.  So 
it  not  unfrequently  hap- 
pens that  where  an  old  map 
or  survey  shows  unmistak- 
ably one  long  straight 
course,  the  fence  stones 
may  show  half  a  dozen 
short  ones,  the  average 
being  identical. 

The  value  of  the  fence 
stones  cannot  be  over- 
estimated and  the  illustra- 
tion, Fig.  8,  will  at  once 
show  the  conditions.  Once 
I  was  called  upon  to  survey 
an  old  farm  which  had  ac- 
quired value  and  was  to  be 
sold  by  the  acre.  There 
existed  a  good  map  of  the 
land  made  early  in  the  last 
century,  but  at  different 
times  small  tracts  had  been 
purchased  and  added  to 
the  farm  while  in  other 
portions  of  it  sections  had 
been  sold  off,  so  that  the  boundaries  were  very  uncertain. 


2O 


BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 


Along  the  back  line  for  about  700  feet  the  fences  had 
entirely  disappeared,  the  wood  had  been 
cut  off  and  after  the  axe  had  come  the 
fires.  The  whole  had  "  come  up  again 
to  sprouts."  The  owner,  who  had  been 
born  on  the  land,  twice  endeavored  to 
show  me  the  line.  The  second  time  he 
got  lost  and,  when  he  found  himself, 

£    was  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  farm 

£ 

«    itself.    At  last  one  fence  stone  was  found 

0 

•~  about  where  the  line  should  be,  then  a 

£  second  and  then  a  third  in  close  prox- 

g  imity.      These   gave    the    direction    in 

'§  which  to  work.     Finally,  by  searching 

M    -5  J3  at  the  proper  intervals,   digging  away 

*•         55 

~f  the  mold  here  and  prodding  with  a 
range  marker  there,  nearly  every  stone 
of  the  series  was  found.  Finally,  when 
the  survey  was  plotted,  it  was  found 
that  the  fence  stones  marked  the  original 
back  line  of  the  old  map,  the  only 
difference  being  that  the  map  gave  one 
long  straight  course  and  the  fence  stones 
six  or  seven  short  courses  (Fig.  9  shows 
the  conditions).  In  searching  for  fence 
stones  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
rows  are  usually  about  four  feet  apart 
and  that  the  rails  which  they  supported  were  twelve  feet 


LANDMARKS 


21 


in  length.     In  some  cases  I  found  that  old  fence  stones 

were  removed  to  be  used  for  other 

purposes.       The     holes,     however, 

which   were   left   in    digging    them 

out,   will   often   mark  their  former 

location  for  some  years. 

Fence  stones  are  almost  always 
landmarks  of  long  standing,  for  while  J$x2& 

new  rails  are  often  laid  on  the  old 
stones,  it  is  doubtful  if  this  form  of 
fence  is  ever  erected  along  new  lines 
at  the  present  time,  —  the  post-and- 
rail  fence  and  the  wire  fence  have 
succeeded  it, — and  the  zigzag  fences 
now  standing  probably  represent 
later  erections  on  old  foundations. 

In  determining  the  point  where 
fences  of  this  sort  come  together  at 
an  acute  angle,  care  should  be  taken 
to  extend  the  ranges  of  the  two 
fences  to  their  logical  intersection, 
as  it  is  a  very  common  practice  to 
join  the  rails  across  from  one  line  to 
the  other  before  the  actual  point  of 
intersection  is  reached. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  fairly 
said  that  in  the  fence  stones  you 
have  not  one  or  two  boundary  stones  but  a  consecutive 


22  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

series  so  numerous  that  the  loss  of  a  number  of  members 
makes  no  essential  difference.  I  have  found  them  to  be 
universally  considered  landmarks  so  ancient  and  so  clear 
that  controversy  might  not  extend  beyond  them.  If  the 
fence  stones  were  found,  all  the  parties  concerned  were 
completely  satisfied. 

There  is  one  other  arrangement  of  stones  which  may  be 
regarded  as  a  very  good  landmark.  It  is  a  common  cus- 
tom to  throw  the  small  waste  stones  picked  up  on  culti- 
vated fields  under  the  fences  which  border  these  fields. 
These  collections  of  stones  often  furnish  an  excellent 
method  of  determining  the  general  location  of  a  long  van- 
ished fence,  as  you  will  see  by  Fig.  10.  The  belt  which 
they  occupy  is  often  several  feet  wide  and  they  may  origi- 
nally have  been  thrown  only  on  one  side  of  the  fence; 
but  they  are  often  of  the  very  greatest  service  in  deter- 
mining the  approximate  position  of  a  boundary  line.  They 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  "  fence  stones  "  among 
which  they  may  lie. 


CHAPTER  V. 

LANDMARKS   (continued). 
MARKED   TIMBER.      DITCHES   AND    BALKS. 

TREES  are  frequently  used  as  monuments  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  property.  In  these  cases  the  kind  of  tree  is  usu- 
ally named  or  the  tree  is  specified  as  a  "  marked  "  tree. 
As  far  as  the  author's  personal  experience  goes,  he  has 
found  that  in  the  sections  where  stone  for  landmarks  was 
scarce,  extra  attention  was  given  to  marking  or  "  blazing  " 
the  trees.  In  the  southern  portion  of  Long  Island,  for 
instance,  there  are  few  fence  stones  but  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  marked  timber. 

The  methods  of  marking  timber  to  indicate  a  line  must 
of  necessity  vary  greatly  with  locality  and  usage,  but  there 
are  certain  "  blaze  marks  "  which  are  so  well  established 
that  they  must  be  regarded  as  extremely  important,  espe- 
cially as  they  usually  come  under  the  head  of  "  marks  on 
the  ground  of  an  old  survey. "  A  property  owner  often 
sets  up  the  artificial  landmarks,  but  it  is  more  frequently 
,the  surveyor  who  marks  the  timber. 

Corner  trees.  —  A  "  corner  tree  "  is  usually  marked  in 
some  distinctive  way  (Fig.  n  shows  one).  Sometimes  a 
series  of  three  notches,  one  over  the  other,  is  cut  on  each 

of  the  four  sides,  or  it  may  be  that  these  notches  are  con- 

23 


BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 


FIG.  ii.  The  three  notches  in  some  cases  are  cut  on  the  four  sides  of  the 
tree,  and  in  other  cases,  only  on  one  side  when  the  intersecting  lines 
enter  the  tree. 


FIG.  12.     The  stone  being  jammed  into  the  roots  of  the  tree,  where 
it  enters  the  ground. 


LANDMARKS  25 

fined  to  the  sides  where  the  intersecting  lines  enter  the 
tree.  Sometimes  a  stone  is  jammed  into  the  earth  at  the 
foot  of  the  tree  to  emphasize  the  corner,  like  in  Fig.  12. 
There  is  an  instance  where  the  stump  of  a  corner  tree  which 
had  been  small  and  inconspicuous  had  been  cut  down 


Boundary  Line 
Leaving  here - 


•  Boundary  Line 
Entering  here 


FIG.  13.     Being  a  line  tree  a  chip  is  taken  out  of  opposite  sides. 

but  the  stone  jammed  in  by  the  stump,  especially  as  it 
was  common  local  usage,  identified  it  with  certainty  (see 
Fig.  12.) 

Line  trees.  —  A  "  line  tree,"  i.e.,  a  tree  through  which 
the  line  passes,  is  usually  designated  in  the  field  by  one  of 
several  ways.  Ordinarily  a  liberal  chip  is  cut  out  of  the 
tree  several  feet  above  the  ground  at  the  point  where  the 
line  enters  it  and  another  on  the  opposite  side  at  the  point 
where  the  line  leaves  it  (Fig.  13  shows  such  a  case).  Some- 


26 


BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 


times  a  second  pair  of  chips  is  cut  out  in  such  a  way  that 
the  line  connecting  them  is  at  right  angles  to  the  line  of 
the  survey,  the  tree  thus  being  blazed  on  four  sides.  This 
arrangement  has  been  found  less  frequent  than  the  other. 
There  are  cases  where  you  will  find  a  line  tree  with  only  the 
second  pair  of  chips  removed.  For  lack  of  a  better  name 
any  mark  intended  to  indicate  a  line  tree  might  be  termed 
a  "  line  blaze." 

Lopped  trees.  —  A  friend  of  the  author's  who  was  an 
antiquarian  as  well  as  a  surveyor,  once  called  his  attention 


FIG.  14.     A  lopped  tree,  bent  in  the  general  direction  of  the  boundary  line. 

to  another  very  old  form  of  line  mark  which  he  called  a 
"  lopped  tree  "  (see  Fig.  14).  It  seems  that  many  old 
surveyors  had  a  practice  of  "  lopping  "  a  sapling  which 
came  on  the  line,  i.e.,  at  a  point  several  feet  above  the 
ground  they  cut  the  sapling  half  through  in  such  a  way 
that  it  could  be  bent  over  parallel  to  the  ground  and  in 
the  direction  of  the  line.  Such  a  sapling  did  not  die  nor 
did  it  ever  become  erect  again.  Though  it  might  grow  to 


LANDMARKS  27 

great  size,  the  main  trunk  was  always  horizontal  or  at 
least  showed  a  double  crook.  The  position  of  this  trunk 
may  indicate  half  a  century  later  the  location  and  general 
direction  of  the  line  of  the  early  survey. 

Another  form  of  blaze  is  used  on  a  tree  that  stands  very 
close  to  the  line  though  not  actually  on  it.     This  mark 


FIG.  15.     Side  line  blaze. 

consists  in  a  chip  taken  out  of  the  side  of  the  tree  which 
is  next  to  the  line.  For  lack  of  a  better  name  this  may  be 
called  a  "  side-line  blaze  "  (see  Fig.  15). 

Of  all  these  marks  the  "  line- tree  "  blaze  is  the  most 
valuable.  It  is  usually  strong  and  unmistakable.  But  all 
blaze  marks  must  be  treated  with  a  certain  amount  of 
skepticism.  A  man  clearing  up  a  piece  of  woodland  fre- 
quently places  a  side-line  blaze  on  the  trees  which  stand 
just  over  the  line  on  his  neighbor's  land.  Such  marks  are 


28  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

usually  very  nearly  accurate  for  the  reason  that,  unless 
the  line  was  very  clear,  the  man  who  was  cutting  the  wood 
would  not  dare  to  define  it.  Scars  looking  very  much  like 
blaze  marks  may  be  formed  on  trees  from  natural  causes, 
while  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  small  boy  with  a 
hatchet  can  mark  up  more  trees  in  one  Saturday  afternoon 
than  a  dozen  surveyors  can  in  a  year. 

In  general,  blaze  marks  are  to  be  regarded  as  suggestive 
and  corroborative  rather  than  determinative.  They  may 
suggest  that  the  line  runs  in  a  place  where  you  did  not  ex- 
pect it  and  a  subsequent  study  of  the  records  may  entirely 
confirm  this.  Or  in  a  case  where  it  has  been  necessary  to 
render  a  decision  on  meager  evidence,  the  finding  of  blaze 
marks  may  confirm  the  decision.  But,  in  general  practice, 
to  render  a  definite  opinion  on  the  evidence  of  a  few  rather 
obscure  blaze  marks  is,  to  say  the  least,  rash.  It  must, 
however,  be  clearly  understood  that  these  remarks  do  not 
refer  to  the  government  blaze  marks  on  public  lands,  these 
being  clearly  and  carefully  made.  These  remarks  apply 
only  to  the  cases  met  with  in  ordinary  country  surveying. 

Ditches.  —  Ditches  are  frequently  used  to  mark  bound- 
ary lines,  but  usually  in  meadow  lands  only.  In  such 
cases  the  line,  which  usually  runs  down  the  center  of  the 
ditch,  is  frequently  marked  additionally  by  a  stake  at 
either  end  of  the  ditch  or  by  a  line  of  stakes  extending 
from  one  end  to  the  other.  Such  ditches  are  usually  spe- 
cifically mentioned  in  descriptions  and  their  meaning  is 
thereby  made  clear. 


LANDMARKS  2p 

Balks.  —  The  using  of  this  term,  which  is  of  perhaps  too 
local  a  nature,  is  meant  in  a  wholly  tentative  manner.  It 
is  intended  to  signify  all  ridges  of  earth  which  mark  a 
boundary  line,  whether  they  be  natural  or  artificial. 

A  balk  is  sometimes  simply  a  low  wall  of  earth  built 
along  a  boundary  line.  In  such  cases  the  line  runs  along 
the  center  and,  if  there  has  been  a  previous  survey,  the 
stakes  will  be  found  on  top  of  the  mound.  It  is  my  im- 
pression that  this  form  is  most  frequently  employed  where 
the  boundary  line  follows  the  junction  of  marsh  and  up- 
land. 

There  is  a  second  form  much  more  difficult  of  interpreta- 
tion, where  a  ditch  has  been  excavated  and  the  earth 
thrown  up  in  a  low  mound  along  one  side.  This  form  is 
not  confined  to  marsh  lands,  but  is  sometimes  seen  in  un- 
fenced  woodland  and  hill  country  and  also  on  the  plains 
here  on  Long  Island.  It  is  an  ancient,  cheap  and  perma- 
nent method  of  marking  poor  land.  The  great  trouble 
with  it  is  that  there  seems  to  be  no  rule  to  determine 
whether  the  ditch  or  the  balk  marks  the  line.  There  are 
cases  of  it  being  both  ways.  If  the  deed  throws  no  light 
on  the  subject,  the  surveyor  must  look  for  other  marks  on 
the  ground  or  must  consult  persons  who  are  familiar  with 
the  land  and  its  history.  It  is  a  case  where  additional 
evidence  must  always  be  sought. 

A  third  form  of  balk  is  largely  the  work  of  nature.  The 
plow  is  a  great  destroyer,  and  where  the  soil  has  been 
loosened  by  it  year  after  year,  nature  removes  the  excess 


30  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

of  earth  in  ways  of  her  own.  On  the  other  hand,  where 
man  has  left  the  soil  alone,  nature  builds  up  its  surface 
from  plant  waste  and  makes  its  texture  firm  by  interlacing 
roots.  For  this  reason  the  level  of  cultivated  fields  is 
gradually  lowered,  while,  if  there  is  a  hedgerow  between 
them,  the  surface  of  this  undisturbed  portion  may  actually 
become  slightly  raised.  If,  after  this,  the  fields  be  allowed 
to  lie  fallow  and  the  hedgerow  be  entirely  cleared  away, 
the  position  of  the  latter  will  nevertheless  be  marked  in  all 
probability  by  a  low  broad  balk,  an  ineradicable  mark  of 
ancient  boundary. 

After  all  has  been  said  it  must  be  fairly  admitted  that 
these  three  classes  of  landmarks,  —  blazed  trees,  ditches 
and  balks,  —  though  capable  of  very  varied  interpreta- 
tion, form  a  most  useful  and  valuable  portion  of  the  gen- 
eral body  of  evidence. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LANDMARKS  (concluded). 

FENCES    AND    WALLS. 

IT  is  needless  to  say  that  walls  and  fences  are  of  great 
importance  as  landmarks;  nevertheless  they  do  not  prove 
to  be  such  definite  ones  as  would  appear  at  first  sight. 
It  is  very  easy  to  say,  "  The  fence  is  the  line,"  but  the 
question  immediately  rises  —  "  Whereabouts  in  the  fence 
is  the  line?  "  -  and  the  same  question  may  be  asked 
concerning  walls.  This  is  a  case  where  every  effort  should 
be  made  to  find  out  the  local  usage,  and  the  surveyor 
should  not  hesitate  to  consult  the  proper  authorities  — 
the  carpenters  who  build  the  fences  and  the  masons  who 
lay  the  walls.  These  people  are  in  the  habit  of  doing 
their  work  from  surveyors'  stakes  and  they  should  be  able 
to  give  one  exact  information  in  regard  to  how  the  fence 
was  built,  though  they  often  fail. 

The  following  rules,  though  they  should  be  confirmed  by 
consulting  local  usage,  may  be  regarded  as  of  very  general 
application. 

Fences  and  walls  between  adjoiners.  —  In  rail  fences  of 
all  kinds  the  line  runs  down  the  middle,  half  of  the  fence 
being  on  the  land  of  one  party  and  half  on  that  of  the 

other  (see  Fig.  16). 

31 


BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 


In  wire  fences  the  wires  themselves  are  on  line,  the  posts 
being  entirely  on  the  land  of  one  party  (see  Fig.  17). 
In  picket  fences  and  board  fences  two  kinds  of  con- 

\t~Thfs  Center  is  the  Boundary  Line 


jiae 

Wireorlron  ' 
Supports 

ffa/fs^ 

i 
j 

"Post 

d 

£ 

r 

B 

I 

l_ 

.       I 

3 

4^"  —  -                   ~**1 

Side.  View. 
FlG.  1  6. 

End  View. 

struction  are  found.     In  the  first  kind  (see  first  case,  Fig. 
1 8),  the  battens  or  flat  strips  to  which  the  pickets  or  boards 


Wires  being  j  (j 
Taken  as  the  -ll? 
Boundary  \  % 

W 
the  Post  ";\ 
being  en-  \  \ 
ti rely  on   \  **•* 
the  Land  \ 
ofoneParry.  \ 


Picket, 


'f-Tfris  Face 
!    Considered  the 
Boundary  Line 


•Post 

Batten 


Measurements  Should 
Always  be  Taken  from  where 
the  Post  Enters  the  Ground. 


x-This  Face 
•     Considered  the 
BoundaryLine 


Case  I., 


Case  2. 


FIG.  17. 


FlG.  i 8. 


are  nailed  are  fastened  to  the  front  of  the  posts;  in  the 
second  (see  second  case,  Fig.  18),  the  battens  are  sunk  to 
their  full  depth  in  the  face  of  the  posts.  In  the  former 


LANDMARKS 


33 


class  the  line  where  the  posts  and  battens  join  is  commonly 
considered  the  line,  or  in  other  words  the  front  of  the  posts 
is  the  line,  the  posts  being  on  the  land  of  one  party  and  the 
battens  and  pickets  (or  boards)  on  that  of  the  other.  In 
the  latter  class  the  front  of  the  posts  (or  the  back  of  the 
pickets)  is  still  the  line,  but  in  this  case  both  the  posts  and 
battens  are  on  the  land  of  one  party  and  only  the  pickets 
on  the  other. 

In  fences  composed  only  of  a  series  of  rows  of  battens 
nailed  to  the  front  of  posts,  the  front  of  the  posts  or  the 
back  of  the  battens  is  the  line,  as  shown  by  Fig.  19. 

|<- .  Boundary  L  ine  as 
\  Should  be  Taken 

m 


In  all  cases  the  measurements  should  be  taken,  not 
from  the  upper  part  of  the  post  but  from  the  point  where  it 
enters  the  ground.  In  case  the  post  leans,  the  measure- 
ments should  be  taken  from  the  point  where  the  face  of 
the  post  would  enter  the  ground  if  the  post  were  straight- 
ened up.  As  a  general  rule  the  posts  at  the  ends  of  a 
fence  are  more  nearly  correct,  since  almost  all  fences  are 
originally  placed  on  line  at  their  ends,  though  they  fre- 


34  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

quently  depart  far  from  the  course  of  rectitude  before  they 
reach  the  middle.  Sometimes,  however,  in  cases  where 
the  posts  have  sagged  a  good  deal  an  average  of  the  bot- 
toms of  the  faces  of  a  number  of  posts  will  be  more  nearly 
the  true  line  than  anything  else. 

In  stone  walls  the  line  may  be  regarded  as  running 
down  the  center,  except  in  the  case  of  bank  walls.  In 
these  the  exposed  face  will  generally  be  found  to  be  on 
or  a  little  back  from  the  line. 

Fences  and  walls  on  highways.  —  Here,  as  in  the  case 
of  division  boundaries,  the  line  may  be  considered  as  run- 
ning down  the  center  of  all  rail  fences. 

In  wire  fences  the  wires  themselves  are  on  the  line  while 
the  posts  are  on  private  land. 

In  the  case  of  picket  and  board  fences  there  seems  to  be 
great  uncertainty,  different  builders  following  different 
methods,  each  according  to  his  own  judgment  rather  than 
by  fixed  rule.  The  majority,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  find  out,  bring  the  outer  edge  of  the  trimming  strip  or 
"  ribbon  "  to  the  street  line,  though  I  am  confident  that 
others  place  the  face  of  the  posts  to  the  line.  Those  fol- 
lowing the  former  practice  claim  that  the  fence  should  be 
entirely  on  private  land,  and  some  extend  this  practice 
even  to  fences  between  adjoiners  —  a  serious  departure 
from  the  best  practice.  Probably,  if  the  truth  were  known, 
you  would  find  that  the  builder  seldom  inquires  into  the 
matter,  for  the  reason  that  most  fences  which  are  built  in 
the  country  simply  replace  old  fences.  In  such  cases 


LANDMARKS  35 

every  effort  is  made  to  line  the  new  posts  exactly  with  the 
old,  so  that  the  ancient  intention,  whatever  it  may  have 
been,  shall  still  be  carried  out  (see  Figs.  16,  17,  18  and  19). 

Much  valuable  information  for  a  locality  can  be  ob- 
tained by  consulting  men  who  have  for  many  years  han- 
dled real  estate  in  the  section  in  question.  In  any  case 
the  surveyor  should  make  every  effort  to  determine  local 
usage  or  lack  of  usage,  and  he  should  then  be  governed  by 
common  sense. 

The  outer  surfaces  of  a  square  unboxed  post  standing 
at  a  street  corner  may  be  regarded  as  agreeing  with  the 
street  lines. 

A  bank  wall  is  to  be  considered  as  on  private  property, 
its  face  being  placed  on  the  street  line  or  a  little  back  of  it. 

In  case  of  ordinary  stone  walls  local  usage  should  be 
carefully  ascertained. 

The  above  rules  are  by  no  means  to  be  considered  as 
unvarying,  but  any  surveyor  will  agree  that  they  fall  in 
closely  with  the  lines  of  common  practice  everywhere. 
As  said  before,  the  surveyor  should  in  all  cases  make  cer- 
tain of  the  practices  which  prevail  in  the  section  where  he 
is  working. 

It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  where  walls  and  fences 
have  been  removed  for  any  purpose,  frequently  sufficient 
fragments  are  left  below  ground  to  determine  accurately 
the  position  of  the  original  line.  Careful  search  will  fre- 
quently reveal  these  fragments,  and  the  surveyor  should 
so  far  familiarize  himself  with  the  various  methods  of  con- 


36  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

struction  that  he  can  immediately  determine  what  position 
these  crumbling  fragments  actually  bear  to  the  original 
line.  Quite  frequently  on  the  removal  of  an  old  fence  the 
principal  posts  are  cut  off  at  or  just  below  the  ground  and 
the  stumps  left  standing  for  this  very  purpose.  This  is  a 
practice  which  cannot  be  too  much  encouraged.  The  find- 
ing of  these  buried  "  marks  on  the  ground  "  will  frequently 
end  controversies,  prevent  law  suits  and  avert  expensive 
errors  in  construction.  It  is  one  of  the  duties  of  the  sur- 
veyor to  see  that  such  landmarks  are  preserved  as  far  as 
possible,  and  when  it  becomes  necessary  that  they  should 
be  removed  he  should  take  such  measurements  and  "  ties  " 
as  may  certainly  identify  their  original  location. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DEEDS  WITH  COMPLETE  DESCRIPTIONS. 

IN  direct  contrast  to  deeds  containing  descriptions  by 
adjoiners  only  is  the  class  which,  for  lack  of  a  better  name, 
we  might  call  "  Deeds  with  Complete  Descriptions."  Such 
deeds  usually  commence  with  a  clear  location  of  the  start- 
ing point  and  then  continue  by  course  and  distance  com- 
pletely around  the  piece  to  be  described  with  frequent 
reference  to  definite  landmarks.  If  the  deed  by  adjoiners, 
previously  given  in  Chapter  II,  were  to  be  rewritten  along 
these  lines,  the  description  would  read  something  like  this: 

"  Beginning  at  a  stake  standing  at  the  Northwest  corner 
of  the  property  to  be  conveyed  at  a  point  on  the  East  line 

of  the  highway  leading  from  M to  N adjoining 

land  of  William  Smith  and  running  thence  S  68  J°  E,  25.77 
chains  along  land  of  said  William  Smith  to  land  of  Richard 
Jones  as  the  fence  now  stands,  thence  along  said  Jones' 
land  S  5J°  E,  16.60  chains  to  a  large  Stone  at  the  South- 
east corner,  thence  along  land  now  or  late  of  John  Brown 
S  88°  W,  14.27  chains  to  the  middle  of  the  Spring,  thence 
N  22°  W,  57  links  to  a  Black  Oak  tree,  thence  S  87i°  W 
along  said  lands  now  or  late  of  Brown,  n  chains  to  the 
East  line  of  the  highway,  thence  along  the  East  line  of 
said  highway  N  4!°  W,  15.63  chains  to  the  point  or  place 
of  Beginning,  containing  within  the  said  bounds  Forty-one 

37 


38  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

Acres  and  38  Square  Rods  of  land,  be  the  same  more  or 
less,  according  to  a  survey  made  by  John  Wolcott,  County 
Surveyor,  October  3oth,  1819." 

In  this  case  the  surveyor  has  clear  and  specific  directions 
for  his  guidance,  but  actual  practice  will  show  that  this  is 
by  no  means  an  unalloyed  blessing,  for  while  these  direc- 
tions point  the  line  he  is  to  follow  they  are  also  liable  to 
restrict  him  very  severely.  If  the  description  were  surely 
exact  and  accurate,  as  most  modern  descriptions  are  in- 
tended to  be,  the  case  would  be  different,  but  the  descrip- 
tions of  these  older  deeds  is  in  general  only  approximate  in 
accordance  with  the  loose  methods  of  conveyance  of  their 
time.  How  is  the  surveyor  to  tell  what  items  are  to  be 
followed  minutely,  what  ones  are  to  be  taken  with  allow- 
ance and  what  ones  are  to  be  thrown  out  altogether?  In 
the  foregoing  instance  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  there 
have  been  no  clerical  errors  in  the  field  notes,  the  descrip- 
tion furnished  by  the  surveyor  or  the  deed  as  drawn. 

In  the  first  place  the  courses  in  the  above  description 
are  given  only  to  quarter  degrees,  which  allows  and  prac- 
tically necessitates  an  error  of  some  minutes  in  the  bearing 
of  every  course  in  the  description.  In  the  second  place 
the  original  survey  was  probably  run  with  an  old-fashioned 
surveyor's  compass,  which  is  a  crude  instrument  at  best. 
Concerning  the  compass  in  the  present  case  we  do  not 
know  whether  its  meridian  coincided  exactly  with  the 
line  of  sight,  whether  the  needle  was  accurately  centered 
and  moved  freely  on  the  pin  or  that  the  compass  ring  did 


DEEDS  WITH  COMPLETE   DESCRIPTIONS  39 

not  contain  minute  fragments  of  iron  which  might  attract 
the  needle.  Still  further  we  have  no  proof  that  John  Wol- 
cott  did  not  read  the  needle  through  steel-bowed  spec- 
tacles. Beside  this  we  do  not  know  whether  he  took 
backsights  as  well  as  foresights,  whether  he  made  allow- 
ance for  diurnal  variation  or  whether  he  was  troubled  in 
his  work  by  local  attraction.  Incidentally  we  do  not 
know  whether  the  same  causes  of  local  attraction  exist 
to-day  that  existed  in  1819  or  whether  the  ones  observable 
to-day  were  then  present. 

It  is  possible  of  course  to  determine  the  true  meridian  by 
observations  of  the  Polar  Star  or  by  solar  apparatus,  but 
the  exigencies  of  ordinary  surveying  frequently  preclude 
both  these  methods.  Granted  that  the  meridian  can  be 
established  on  the  ground  and  that  the  exact  declination 
of  the  needle  in  1819  for  the  locality  is  known,  how  nearly 
will  the  line  thus  determined  agree  with  the  line  as  origi- 
nally surveyed  when  the  original  record  itself  is  so  involved 
in  probable  and  indeterminable  error?  It  seems  that  the 
old  proverb,  "  A  chain  is  as  strong  as  its  weakest  link,"  is 
singularly  applicable  in  the  present  instance.  The  pres- 
ence in  the  original  fieldwork  of  a  single  one  of  the  many 
possible  errors  makes  it  a  very  uncertain  matter  whether 
the  line  carefully  established  from  meridian  agrees  at  all 
closely  with  the  old  line  on  the  ground  as  it  was  surveyed 
nearly  a  century  ago. 

Nor  do  the  possibilities  of  error  in  description  lie  in  the 
compass  bearings  alone.  There  are  perhaps  still  greater 


40  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

certainties  of  error  in  the  chaining.  We  do  not  know  cer- 
tainly whether  John  Wolcott  held  his  chain  level  or  laid  it 
along  the  ground.  He  may  have  struck  a  compromise 
between  the  two  by  always  running  full-length  chains  and 
holding  them  as  nearly  horizontal  as  the  ground,  however 
rugged,  would  allow  —  a  method  which  has  been  done.  In 
any  case,  if  the  country  were  rough,  we  are  practically 
sure  that  the  chain  was  considerably  off  the  horizontal  a 
large  part  of  the  time.  In  case  of  running  parallel  with  a 
hedgerow  or  overgrown  fence,  we  do  not  know  whether  he 
actually  determined  his  offset  points  at  right  angles  to  the 
true  stations  before  chaining  or  whether  he  simply  laid  out 
an  equal  distance  at  each  end  and  "  guessed  "  that  he  had 
established  his  chaining  points  opposite  the  stations. 
Furthermore  we  do  not  know  how  much  the  line  was 
obstructed  at  the  time  of  the  original  survey,  how  high  the 
chain  had  to  be  held  or  what  methods  were  used  to  deter- 
mine the  ground  points  under  the  ends  of  the  chain. 

Among  this  mass  of  probable  errors  it  seems  hopeless  at 
first  to  think  of  reaching  anything  like  definite  results,  but 
there  is  a  mitigating  circumstance  which  has  not  been 
mentioned.  The  old  surveyors  were  more  particular,  it 
often  seems,  about  leaving  behind  them  permanent  marks 
than  are  the  surveyors  of  to-day.  The  modern  surveyor 
is  prone  to  run  an  instrument  traverse  where  he  can  do  so 
most  easily,  and  from  this  he  runs  offsets  to  the  corners 
which  he  marks  with  stakes  none  too  large.  As  a  result 
the  actual  line  between  corners  is  un traversed  and  un- 


DEEDS   WITH   COMPLETE  DESCRIPTIONS  41 

marked.  The  old  surveyors  used  larger  corner  stakes;  they 
generally  held  closely  to  the  course  and  frequently  set  line 
stakes  at  all  compass  stations,  blazing  the  timber  with  a 
liberal  hand. 

I  have  in  memory  an  old  surveyor  who  at  an  advanced 
age  took  with  him  to  the  grave  a  knowledge  of  property 
relations  which  the  younger  men  who  have  come  after 
him  may  never  hope  to  acquire,  but  whose  methods  of 
work  became  fixed  in  the  days  when  less  accuracy  was  de- 
manded. His  bearings  were  seldom  closer  than  5  minutes 
and  accurate  measurements  would  often  shorten  his  dis- 
tances ten  feet  in  the  thousand  in  rough  and  hilly  country. 
But  as  a  marker  of  a  line  he  had  few  equals.  If  his  map 
called  for  a  stake  in  a  certain  place,  there  on  the  ground 
would  be  found  a  short  strong  post  of  locust  about  one 
foot  tall.  If  his  map  called  for  a  stone,  you  would  find  a 
stone  that  required  a  crow  bar  to  move  it,  and  his  marked 
trees  carried  the  scars  forever.  His  courses  and  distances 
were  inaccurate  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  but  they 
were  always  sure  guides  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  clear 
and  substantial  landmarks  defining  the  actual  boundaries. 

Considering,  then,  all  the  uncertainty  connected  with 
description  of  land  and  the  possible  and  probable  errors 
which  may  exist  in  each  case,  I  have  been  led  to  adopt  in 
my  own  work  the  "  Principle  of  Cumulative  Evidence." 
It  seems  that,  either  rightly  or  wrongly,  it  is  incumbent  on 
the  surveyor  to  collect  all  the  evidence  in  each  case  and 
to  carry  his  work  along  the  lines  of  the  preponderance  of 


42  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

probability.  In  nearly  all  cases,  while  some  of  the  data 
are  either  ambiguous  or  even  conflicting,  there  is  usually  a 
large  preponderance  of  evidence  which  points  more  or 
less  clearly  to  one  solution  of  the  problem,  and  my  own 
experience,  containing  some  few  examples,  leads  me  to 
believe  that  this  generally  indicated  solution  is  probably 
the  right  one.  I  have  generally  found  that  this  line  of 
reasoning  appeals  pretty  strongly  to  all  parties  interested 
and  that  there  is  a  general  willingness  to  abide  by  a  de- 
cision so  reached.  The  fact  that  you  have  been  willing  to 
collect  all  data  possible  and  hear  all  sides  of  the  case  begets 
confidence,  and  the  rest  is  largely  a  matter  of  common 
sense. 

If,  however,  the  evidence  for  and  against  re-locating  an 
old  line  in  a  certain  place  is  pretty  evenly  divided,  it  is  my 
belief  that  a  conference  of  all  parties  interested  should  be 
arranged  with  a  view  to  establishing  a  line  by  agreement, 
as  a  sure  and  safe  way  of  preserving  the  peace  and  fixing 
the  boundary  for  the  years  to  come. 

In  the  description  mentioned  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter  it  will  be  noted  that  most  of  the  courses  are  very 
long,  as,  for  instance,  the  first  course  of  25.77  chains  or  a 
little  over  1700  feet.  It  will  be  readily  seen  that  a  deflec- 
tion of  a  very  few  minutes  at  one  end  will  cause  a  serious 
departure  by  the  time  the  other  end  of  the  course  is  reached. 
Hence,  if  the  compass  is  taken  as  the  only  guide  of  direc- 
tion, the  slightest  error  in  correcting  the  variation  will  have 
disastrous  results,  supposing  that  the  original  record  was 


DEEDS   WITH  COMPLETE  DESCRIPTIONS  43 

perfect;  and  furthermore,  25.77  chains  is  a  long  distance 
to  have  been  chained  accurately  in  the  old  days.  The 
deed  states  that  this  course  was  run  "  as  the  fence  now 
stands."  Any  traces  then  of  this  old  boundary  are  to  be 
regarded  as  evidence  in  point,  and  it  will  be  very  remark- 
able if  a  number  of  remains  are  not  found  somewhere  along 
the  line.  A  bearing  taken  with  the  proper  care  along  the 
general  line  of  these  landmarks  should  show  very  nearly  by 
actual  measurement  how  much  the  compass  has  changed 
since  the  time  of  the  original  survey.  If  this  actual  varia- 
tion agrees  with  the  theoretical  variation,  so  much  the 
better.  The  distance  named  in  the  description  will  en- 
able the  surveyor  to  tell  when  he  approaches  the  near 
vicinity  of  the  northeast  corner,  but  the  position  of  the 
corner  should  be  determined  from  the  sum  total  of  evidence. 
Old  stakes,  fence  remains,  marked  timber,  lines  along  which 
the  land  has  been  cleared,  marks  of  old  balks  or  hedgerows, 
claims  of  adjoiners  and  testimony  of  old  residents  all  have 
their  place  in  the  body  of  evidence  on  which  the  corner  may 
be  reestablished.  The  dimension  named  in  the  deed  should 
be  binding  only  in  the  case  of  total  lack  of  other  trust- 
worthy evidence.  In  nine  cases  our  of  ten  the  careful 
measurements  of  to-day  will  overrun  the  point  where  the 
corner  originally  existed. 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  to  settle  the  first  course  as 
the  first  step.  Careful  investigation  may  prove  that  mat- 
ters are  much  clearer  and  much  more  certain  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  stone  at  the  southeast  corner.  It  may  be  that 


44  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

the  line  from  the  stone  to  the  center  of  the  spring  is  very 
clear  and  that  the  variation  of  the  compass  may  be  best 
established  along  this  line.  It  is  also  quite  possible  that 
the  field  marks  indicating  the  back  line  or  second  course 
of  the  description  may  be  clear  near  the  stone  and  that,  by 
tracing  these  backward,  evidence  previously  overlooked 
may  be  found  showing  where  this  course  meets  the  first 
course,  the  result  being  the  establishment  of  the  northeast 
corner  which  was  before  more  or  less  uncertain. 

In  short,  no  fixed  rule  of  procedure  can  be  laid  down, 
and  the  realization  of  this  seems  to  me  to  be  the  first  step 
toward  a  right  solution  of  problems  of  this  nature.  I  do 
not  mean  by  this  that  the  matter  should  be  gone  at  hap- 
hazard, but  that  the  mind  should  be  in  a  receptive  condi- 
tion, ready  to  give  a  hearing  to  all  evidence  and  quick  to 
analyze,  arrange  and  weigh  this  evidence.  Furthermore 
the  mind  should  give  its  first  attention  to  the  broader 
consideration  of  the  case,  coming  down  to  details  and 
minutiae  later.  To  this  end  I  have  always  found  it  advan- 
tageous to  go  completely  around  the  piece  of  land  to  be 
surveyed  in  the  company  of  the  owner,  hearing  all  he  has 
to  say  and  noticing  the  main  features  and  the  landmarks 
as  far  as  possible.  It  is  better  that  this  should  be  done 
several  days  before  the  actual  fieldwork  begins,  in  order 
that  there  may  be  mapped  out  in  the  mind  some  definite 
plan  of  work  fitting  the  conditions  in  hand.  A  plot  of  the 
piece  of  land  in  question,  made  according  to  the  descrip- 
tion given  in  the  deed,  will  often  prove  very  useful  as  a 


DEEDS   WITH  COMPLETE   DESCRIPTIONS  45 

starting  point  from  which  to  work  out  toward  a  plan  of 
common-sense  procedure  in  making  the  actual  survey. 

Between  the  two  extreme  classes  of  descriptions,  those 
with  full  dimensions  and  those  with  no  dimensions,  there 
are  all  kinds  of  intermediate  varieties.  Some  deeds  de- 
scribe partly  by  adjoiners  and  partly  by  course  and  dis- 
tance, some  by  linear  dimensions  only,  and  there  have 
been  some  of  the  sides  described  by  compass  bearing  only. 
Others  are  plainly  made  up  in  whole  or  in  part  from  courses 
and  distances  borrowed  from  the  descriptions  of  the  sev- 
eral adjoiners,  regardless  of  the  different  variations  of  the 
compass  as  determined  by  the  different  dates  of  the  differ- 
ent component  surveys. 

No  two  of  these  problems  are  alike,  but  they  are  all  open 
to  the  same  method  of  investigation  and  solution,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  preponderance  of  evidence  from  all  sources 
carefully  collected,  thoroughly  analyzed  and  honestly 
weighed. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
SOURCES  OF  ERROR  IN  DESCRIPTIONS. 

IN  the  description  in  the  previous  chapter  it  has  been 
taken  for  granted  that  there  have  been  no  clerical  errors 
in  recording  the  field  notes  or  in  transcribing  them  into 
the  deed.  In  addition  to  this  the  actual  date  of  the  survey 
and  the  name  of  the  surveyor  are  given.  The  former  gives 
some  definite  basis  on  which  to  make  compass  corrections, 
while  it  is  possible  that  something  is  known  of  the  special 
idiosyncrasies  of  this  particular  surveyor.  But  it  can  per- 
haps be  fairly  said  that  in  these  respects  this  particular 
deed  is  an  exception  to  the  established  order. 

The  descriptions  to  be  found  in  many  deeds  are  but  dreary 
inheritances  from  the  past.  It  frequently  happens  that 
circumstances  require  a  surveyor  to  follow  back  the  title  of 
a  piece  of  land  of  which  he  has  been  furnished  only  the 
description  from  the  last  transfer.  He  then  frequently 
finds  that  the  description  does  not  apply  to  the  time  of 
this  particular  transfer  at  all,  but  has  been  handed  down 
slavishly  from  transfer  to  transfer  —  from  decade  to  dec- 
ade. This  is  not  necessarily  the  result  of  ignorance  or 
penuriousness,  but  is  frequently  based  on  the  desire  to 
make  sure  that  the  piece  of  land  conveyed  is  exactly  the 
same  piece  that  was  conveyed  by  the  next  previous  deed. 

In  fact  most  deeds  contain  a  clause  stating  that  this  is 

46 


SOURCES  OF  ERROR  IN  DESCRIPTIONS  47 

"  the  same  piece  of  land  formerly  conveyed  by  X to 

Z ,  dated  so-and-so  and  recorded  so-and-so."  Of 

course  this  all  means  that  the  date  of  the  original  survey 
is  so  very  uncertain  that  there  is  no  basis  upon  which  to 
correct  the  compass,  unless  the  search  should  chance  to 
establish  the  time  of  the  original  survey  in  a  fairly  definite 
manner.  It  may  at  least  be  said  that  a  few  experiences  of 
this  sort  remove  all  confidence  in  one's  ability  to  make  ac- 
curate compass  corrections  from  the  data  contained  in  the 
ordinary  deed.  Indeed  it  is  often  much  easier  to  fix  the 
approximate  date  of  the  original  survey  from  the  actually 
measured  compass  correction  of  a  known  line  in  the  field. 

Besides  this  uncertainty  of  date  there  are  often  distinct 
clerical  errors  in  transcription  or  even  in  the  original  field 
notes.  When  there  is  reason  to  doubt  the  description  a 
careful  search  for  what  mistake  would  probably  have  been 
made  under  these  particular  circumstances  will  often  lead 
to  a  discovery  of  what  the  proper  record  should  have  been. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  matter  to  find  that  the  bearing 
has  been  recorded  in  the  wrong  quadrant,  especially  if  the 
bearing  approaches  closely  due  east  or  due  west.  Some- 
what rarer  is  the  error  of  reading  the  compass  backward. 
Suppose  that  the  bearing  is  N  33°  W  and  that  the  surveyor 
is  reading  the  end  of  the  needle  nearest  him,  under  which 
circumstances  the  figures  on  the  compass  ring  would  be 
inverted,  causing  a  certain  possibility  of  confusion.  His 
eye,  instead  of  catching  the  30  and  reading  on  to  the  left, 
catches  the  40  and  reads  on  to  the  right.  The  result  is 


48  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

that  he  records  the  bearing  as  N  47°  W  instead  of  N  33°  W 
as  it  should  be.  It  would  seem  that  these  errors  ought  to 
come  out  in  balancing  the  survey  at  the  time  of  the  original 
computation,  but  this  is  not  always  the  case,  for  I  have 
seen  a  very  bad  quadrant  error  carried  straight  on  and 
plotted  in  the  map;  while  in  unclosed  surveys,  such  as 
those  of  highways,  where  there  is  no  computation,  there  is 
no  way  of  discovering  the  error  after  it  has  once  been  made. 

It  is  always  well  at  the  start  to  plot  out  on  the  paper 
the  description  from  the  deed  in  order  to  find  errors  of 
this  kind,  if  any  are  present.  There  was  a  certain  descrip- 
tion where  two  courses  were  given  as  northeast.  When 
plotted  thus,  a  most  remarkable  outline  with  great  error 
of  closure  was  the  result.  Knowing  something  of  the  local- 
ity, I  felt  confident  that  these  courses  should  be  made 
southeast  instead.  As  soon  as  this  change  was  made  the 
survey  closed  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner,  and  subse- 
quent fieldwork  proved  my  theory  correct. 

Far  less  easy  to  locate  are  errors  in  copying  figures,  yet  a 
logical  course  of  procedure  will  frequently  enable  one  to 
make  the  right  correction.  I  remember  one  case  where 
the  description  was  supposed  to  follow  the  remains  of  an 
old  worm  fence  and  the  actual  survey  agreed  with  this 
description  in  a  most  satisfactory  manner.  Suddenly,  on 
a  course  given  as  S  7°  E,  the  line  deflected  several  feet 
from  the  fence  and  on  the  following  courses  continued 
parallel  to  it.  It  seemed  that  the  surveyor  might  have 
read  the  compass  backward  and  recorded  7°  when  he 


SOURCES  OF  ERROR  IN  DESCRIPTIONS  49 

meant  3°.  This  correction  improved  the  trouble  but  did 
not  entirely  do  away  with  it.  I  then  took  the  actual  bear- 
ing of  the  fence,  corrected  it  and  found  that  the  original 
bearing  must  have  been  4°  instead  of  7°.  The  explana- 
tion was  simple.  Someone  in  writing  the  4  had  made  the 
first  downstroke  very  short,  had  made  the  cross-stroke 
very  high  and  had  carried  it  only  until  it  met  the  long 
downstroke.  Someone  making  a  later  copy  of  this  de- 
scription had  mistaken  the  distorted  4  for  an  elaborate  7 
and  had  copied  it  as  such. 

When  such  clerical  errors  occur  on  maps  they  can  fre- 
quently be  discovered  by  going  over  the  map  with  scale 
and  protractor,  the  actual  lines  of  the  map  being  correct 
while  the  accompanying  legend  is  not.  Other  errors  again 
can  only  be  corrected  from  the  actual  conditions  as  found 
in  the  field.  For  some  errors  no  logical  explanation  can 
be  found.  They  must  be  corrected  according  to  the  best 
dictates  of  common  sense. 

Before  leaving  the  subject  of  deeds  attention  should  be 
called  to  one  further  point  of  interest,  that  for  purposes  of 
getting  back  to  an  original  boundary  or  settling  a  dispute, 
several  deeds,  though  equally  explicit,  are  not  necessarily 
of  equal  value.  This  is  especially  true  with  reference  to 
the  determination  of  boundaries  along  highways.  Most 
highways  are  described  in  the  public  records  by  a  survey, 
the  courses,  distances  and  width  of  the  road  being  clearly 
given.  Theoretically  the  descriptions  of  properties  adjoin- 
ing such  a  road  should  come  to  the  recorded  boundaries 


50  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

of  the  road  and  no  farther.  It  is  a  fact,  however,  that 
these  boundaries  along  roads  are  the  most  unstable  of  all 
boundaries  for  the  simple  reason  that,  while  each  man 
watches  his  neighbor  to  see  that  there  is  no  transgression 
of  the  line  between  them,  all  parties  concerned  are  apt  to 
combine  to  borrow  as  much  land  from  the  public  highway 
as  possible.  As  a  rule  a  highway  record  is  rather  difficult 
to  reestablish,  and  in  cases  of  small  places  and  house  lots 
the  ordinary  deed,  outside  of  city  limits,  makes  no  pre- 
tense of  defining  the  road  in  accordance  with  its  official 
boundaries.  The  survey  has  usually  been  made  at  small 
charges  by  some  local  surveyor,  the  object  being  simply  to 
"  get  something  we  can  put  in  the  deed." 

As  a  result  some  deeds  bordering  along  such  a  road, 
notably  those  of  a  date  nearest  to  that  at  which  the  road 
itself  was  put  on  record,  may  be  very  valuable  not  only 
with  reference  to  the  piece  of  property  which  they  de- 
scribe but  also  in  connection  with  determining  the  actual 
location  of  the  road  itself.  They  more  probably  repre- 
sent the  conditions  before  there  was  any  encroachment  on 
the  highway,  while  the  deeds  of  other  pieces  of  land  on 
the  same  street,  though  they  may  agree  exactly  with  the 
present  lines  of  possession,  may  be  based  upon  surveys 
made  after  the  fences  had  been  pushed  out  on  to  land 
properly  belonging  to  the  public.  There  is  a  case  where 
two  small  streets  together  formed  a  T-shaped  court,  one 
street  forming  the  upright  of  the  T  and  the  other  the 
crossbar  at  the  top.  Both  had  been  recorded  something 


SOURCES  OF  ERROR  IN  DESCRIPTIONS  51 

like  fifty  years  ago,  but  the  official  boundaries  had  been 
very  much  neglected.  It  became  necessary  to  define  the 
boundaries  of  these  streets,  since  it  was  generally  believed 
that  there  had  been  wholesale  encroachment  on  the  high- 
way. A  careful  examination  of  the  road  record,  and  of  the 
deeds  which  were  made  at  about  the  same  time  and  which 
also  referred  specifically  to  these  streets  as  new  streets, 
gave  sufficient  data  for  locating  the  limits  of  the  road 
successfully.  There  were  other  deeds,  however,  where 
the  case  was  very  different.  There  was  one  in  particular 
of  a  property  located  at  the  corner  where  the  two  streets 
met.  In  this  deed  the  description  agreed  almost  exactly 
with  the  land  as  found  in  possession,  but  these  lines  of 
possession  at  one  corner  encroached  several  feet  on  the 
highway.  Investigation  showed  that  for  nearly  ten  years 
after  the  recording  of  the  street  this  corner  land  had  lain 
unfenced  and  had  practically  been  regarded  as  common 
land.  When  finally  a  fence  was  erected  it  was  placed 
without  reference  to  the  street  lines  which  had  been  lost 
sight  of  meanwhile.  The  survey  for  the  deed  was  prob- 
ably made  as  the  fence  stood,  and  thus  it  came  to  pass 
that  a  description  which  agreed  with  long-established  lines 
of  possession  was  finally  found  to  be  utterly  at  variance 
with  the  road  record. 

From  the  above  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  it  is  a  deli- 
cate matter,  in  the  case  of  determining  a  boundary  contro- 
versy, to  sort  out  the  valuable  deeds  from  those  which  are 
worthless  from  the  surveyor's  standpoint.  It  requires  not 


52  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

only  good  judgment  but  a  considerable  amount  of  tact  as 
well,  for  it  is  a  trying  matter  to  convince  one  party  in  the 
altercation  that  his  deed  is  worthless  as  evidence  while  his 
opponent's  is  of  value.  The  surveyor  is  pretty  sure  to 
incur  criticism  in  any  case. 

Of  course  a  large  part  of  the  foregoing  does  not  apply 
to  sections  where  property  lines  and  especially  street  lines 
are  marked  by  accurately  set  stone  monuments.  In  such 
cases  the  boundaries  are  already  settled.  The  suggestions 
are  intended  to  apply  to  old  acreage  and  long-settled 
country  communities  where  the  loosely  established  bound- 
aries of  long  ago  have  seldom  been  verified,  and  where, 
during  the  lapse  of  easy-going  years,  the  landmarks  have 
been  lost  or  forgotten.  It  is  such  lines  and  such  landmarks 
that  it  is  difficult  to  reestablish  when  the  requirements  of 
the  present  day  demand  them. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE   SURVEYOR  AND  THE 
LAWYER. 

BEFORE  leaving  this  general  subject  it  would  perhaps  be 
well  to  consider  for  a  few  moments  the  relation  between 
the  surveyor  and  the  one  who  may  perhaps  be  called  his 
co-worker  —  the  lawyer. 

Surveys  are  usually  made  in  order  to  furnish  the  de- 
scriptions to  be  used  in  legal  instruments  and  the  data 
necessary  for  legal  proceedings.  The  surveyor  does  not 
necessarily  look  upon  a  survey  in  the  same  light  as  does 
the  man  of  law,  and  he  must  be  governed  largely  by  the 
particular  legal  requirements  of  the  case  in  hand.  While 
the  surveyor  naturally  looks  for  the  intention  implied  in 
the  earliest  conveyance  of  a  piece  of  land  and  seeks  to  get 
back  to  the  original  boundaries,  the  lawyer  may  sweep 
aside  all  this  exact  and  careful  work  and  require  a  survey 
according  to  the  boundaries  of  to-day,  on  the  ground  of 
undisputed  possession  for  a  number  of  years.  Yet  the 
lawyer  will  promptly  admit  that  the  course  followed  by 
the  surveyor  was  the  proper  course  for  the  surveyor,  the 
responsibility  of  departing  from  the  ancient  record  resting 
entirely  with  himself.  Furthermore  the  lawyer  is  gener- 
ally very  glad  to  know  what  the  original  conditions  actu- 

53 


54  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

ally  were,  no  matter  how  far  he  may  subsequently  depart 
from  them. 

I  have  said  that  the  surveyor  must  be  largely  governed 
by  the  legal  requirements  of  the  case  in  hand,  but  I  do  not 
mean  by  this  that  he  should  endeavor  to  make  legal  de- 
cisions for  himself.  The  surveyor  is  usually  employed  by 
a  lawyer  direct  or  by  a  man  who  has  an  attorney  looking 
after  his  interests,  and  the  survey  is  usually  wanted  for 
some  special  and  particular  purpose.  Though  the  surveyor 
may  not  at  all  approve  the  lines  he  is  directed  to  follow,  I 
do  not  think  that  he  can  very  well  refuse  to  do  the  work 
unless  it  is  very  clear  that  he  is  making  himself  a  party  to 
questionable  proceedings.  In  case  he  does  not  fully  agree 
with  the  instructions  which  he  receives  I  think  that  he 
should  make  his  employer  or  his  employer's  attorney 
shoulder  completely  the  responsibility  for  those  instruc- 
tions, and  that  he  should  retain  written  evidence  of  the 
same  if  possible.  If  a  moral  issue  is  at  stake  he  should 
refuse  the  work  rather  than  enter  upon  an  undertaking 
which  he  believes  to  be  questionable. 

I  think  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  legal  intricacies  con- 
nected with  the  search  and  guaranteeing  of  complicated 
titles  are  beyond  the  province  and  the  full  appreciation  of 
the  ordinary  surveyor,  yet  he  must  render  intelligent  help 
to  the  lawyer  who  is  attending  to  the  same.  I  think  that 
in  these  cases  he  should  obtain  the  most  explicit  directions 
concerning  the  measurements  which  he  is  to  make  and 
that  he  should  make  a  most  full  and  careful  report  to  the 


RELATIONS   OF  THE  SURVEYOR  AND  THE  LAWYER      55 

lawyer  of  the  conditions  as  found  on  the  ground,  and  that 
he  should  then  ask  for  full  directions  as  to  what  the  final 
survey  must  show  and  should  assume  responsibility  for 
absolutely  nothing  but  the  honesty  and  accuracy  of  his 
work.  By  so  doing  he  will  be  certain  of  keeping  his  own 
hands  clean  and  of  retaining  the  respect  of  all  those  by 
whom  he  is  employed. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  a  great  many  lawyers  who  are 
continually  dealing  with  land  transfers  are  grossly  ignorant 
of  the  simplest  details  of  surveying  —  I  should  say  that 
the  minority  know  the  number  of  feet  in  a  chain.  As  a 
result  many  useful  details  which  the  surveyor  would  gladly 
furnish  in  connection  with  the  piece  of  land  in  question 
are  to  many  of  them  difficult  of  comprehension  or  abso- 
lutely meaningless.  On  the  other  hand  the  surveyor  is 
probably  equally  ignorant  of  the  law  of  property.  A  frank 
recognition  by  each  of  his  own  limitation  is,  I  think,  the 
first  step  to  a  sound  understanding  and  furnishes  a  starting 
point  from  which  both  may  work  together  toward  accu- 
rate and  satisfactory  results. 


CHAPTER  X. 
HOUSE  LOTS. 

WHILE  it  may  be  said  that  in  general  the  most  important 
problems  that  vex  the  surveyor  arise  in  connection  with 
acreage  and  the  determination  of  old  boundaries,  yet  there 
is  a  class  of  smaller  surveys  which,  in  its  way,  is  capable  of 
giving  infinite  trouble.  This  is  the  group  of  house-lot 
surveys.  In  fact  I  think  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  there  is 
more  strife  and  litigation  over  the  boundaries  of  these 
small  holdings  than  there  is  over  the  boundaries  of  large 
tracts. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  not  difficult  to  find.  Usually 
land  which  is  divided  into  lots  is  held  at  a  much  higher 
valuation  than  that  which  lies  in  large  tracts,  and  an  inch 
error  one  way  or  the  other  is  a  very  much  more  serious 
matter.  Moreover  since  the  dimensions  are  comparatively 
small  and  extremely  specific,  property  owners  feel  that  the 
surveyor  should  be  able  to  show  them  exactly  where  their 
boundaries  lie.  This  expectation  is  thoroughly  reasonable 
in  case  of  modern  lot  layouts  in  large  communities  where 
property  limits  are  minutely  defined,  but  such  surveys  usu- 
ally come  under  the  hands  of  city  engineers  and  seldom 
fall  to  the  lot  of  those  whose  work  lies  in  country-towns 

and  villages  or  at  best  in  the  suburbs  of  lesser  cities. 

56 


HOUSE  LOTS  57 

It  seldom  happens  that  an  engineer  opening  an  office  in 
such  a  community  will  be  called  upon  at  first  to  cut  up  a 
piece  of  property  into  building  lots,  but  it  is  highly  prob- 
able that  one  of  his  earliest  orders  will  be  to  set  the  corner 
stakes  of  a  plot  according  to  a  map  of  lots  already  in  ex- 
istence. He  may  perhaps  be  materially  aided  in  this  work 
by  a  few  suggestions  as  to  the  methods  in  which  country 
property  has  usually  been  subdivided.  Subdivided  prop- 
erties in  the  country  are  usually  of  two  kinds: 

i.   Properties  controlled  by  Real  Estate  Companies. 

These  properties  are  usually  independent  units.  They 
are  bought  and  handled  purely  as  money-making  enter- 
prises and  they  are  laid  out  entirely  with  a  view  to  bring- 
ing in  the  greatest  possible  returns  on  the  investment.  As 
a  r'esult  they  usually  bear  no  relation  whatever  to  the  ad- 
joining properties.  They  usually  have  a  complete  street 
system  of  their  own  which  is  entirely  independent  of  the 
read  system  of  the  town,  except  that  it  connects  with  one 
or  more  highways  already  existing.  Long  experience  in 
handling  land  in  the  market  has  given  these  real  estate 
companies  the  knowledge  of  how  to  cut  up  the  land  most 
profitably,  and  they  generally  furnish  the  surveyor  a  plan 
of  subdivision  which  he  is  expected  to  follow  within  the 
limits  of  common  sense.  For  this  plan  they  require  a 
careful  map  of  the  boundaries  of  the  property  showing 
its  relation  to  the  adjoining  highways  and  also  the  location 
of  all  buildings  standing  upon  it.  If  the  map  also  shows 
clearly  the  boundaries  between  woodland  and  cleared  land 


58  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

and  the  location  of  all  streams,  ponds,  swamps,  ravines, 
etc.,  in  short  any  points  of  knowledge  which  may  be  useful 
in  subdividing  the  property,  so  much  the  better.  Guided 
by  this  map  the  owners  will  make  a  plan  for  subdivision 
which  it  will  be  the  surveyor's  later  work  to  actually  place 
upon  the  grounds. 

2.  Properties  owned  by  Private  Individuals  usually  not 
Professional  Real  Estate  Men. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  Mr.  Smith,  looking  over  his 
more  or  less  extensive  property,  finds  a  portion  which  is 
at  present  yielding  small  returns,  and  it  strikes  him  that 
it  would  be  an  excellent  idea  to  cut  it  up  into  building  lots 
and  sell  it  to  small  holders.  Feeling  fairly  well  convinced 
that  the  town  is  going  to  grow  in  that  direction  he  proceeds 
to  carry  his  plan  into  effect. 

The  actual  work  of  subdividing  the  land  is  carried  out 
with  all  degrees  of  wisdom  and  unwisdom.  I  have  seen  an 
owner  lay  out  lots  with  a  common  fifty-foot  "  metallic  " 
tape,  using  no  transit  and  making  no  map.  As  the  prices 
which  he  asked  for  his  lots  were  singularly  fair  he  made 
many  sales;  and  in  all  cases  he  made  the  conveyances  and 
prepared  the  deeds  personally.  I  have  known  of  another 
case  where  the  lines  were  run,  not  with  a  transit  but  with  a 
plain  surveyor's  compass,  many  of  the  main  lines  being  of 
such  a  nature  that  it  was  impossible  to  see  from  one  end 
to  the  other.  The  chain  or  tape  work  was  such  as  might 
be  expected  from  a  man  who  would  lay  out  building  lots  by 
a  magnetic  needle.  A  map  was  then  prepared  according  to 


HOUSE  LOTS  59 

what  this  survey  was  intended  to  be  and  the  deeds  were 
drawn  by  a  third  party  who  knew  very  little  about  the 
conditions  in  the  case.  These  instances  are  of  course  ex- 
treme and  the  final  complications  arising  in  each  of  these 
properties  may  easily  be  imagined. 

The  conditions  under  which  country  property  is  sub- 
divided are  usually  somewhat  as  follows: 

A  man  —  the  Mr.  Smith  above  mentioned  —  owns  a 
piece  of  property  bounded  on  one  side  by  a  highway  and 
he  decides  to  cut  up  this  property  into  lots.  If  it  is  a 
small  property  he  opens  one  street  through  the  middle  of 
it  from  the  highway  to  the  back  boundary;  if  it  is  fairly 
large  he  opens  two  or  more  parallel  streets.  These  streets 
are  usually  at  right  angles  to  the  highway  and  are  spaced 
a  number  of  lot  widths  apart,  often  without  any  particular 
attention  being  paid  to  the  fitness  of  the  land  for  road 
building.  All  lots  that  can  be  so  arranged  are  made  to 
face  on  the  public  highway.  The  remainder  are  made  to 
face,  as  far  as  possible,  on  the  main  streets  which  have  been 
cut  through  and  the  balance  are  faced  on  cross  streets 
placed  at  suitable  (or  unsuitable)  intervals  at  right  angles 
to  the  main  streets.  These  cross  streets  run  to  the  side 
lines  of  the  property  and  stop. 

Inasmuch  as  the  exact  boundary  of  the  public  highway 
is  seldom  known,  and  as  its  course  frequently  changes  one 
or  more  times  in  passing  across  the  front  of  the  property, 
it  is  seldom  attempted  to  make  the  highway  the  starting 
point  of  the  lot  layout.  The  intersection  of  the  first  cross 


60  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

street  with  the  main  street  or  streets  is  usually  made  the 
place  of  beginning,  and  from  this  point  the  property  is  cut 
up  into  blocks  which  shall,  as  far  as  possible,  contain  an 
exact  number  of  rectangular  lots  of  the  dimensions  which 
have  been  decided  upon  by  the  owners.  It  will  be  seen, 
however,  that  all  those  lots  which  touch  the  outer  bound- 
aries of  the  property  will,  in  all  probability,  have  irregular 
shapes  and  dimensions,  determined  by  the  direction  of 
these  boundaries  at  the  different  points  of  contact.  Such 
lots  are  the  "  remainders  "  resulting  from  this  sum  in 
division  and  for  convenience  may  be  spoken  of  as  "  re- 
sidual lots  "  or  simply  as  "  residuals." 

It  only  remains  now  to  make  a  map  of  the  property  with 
an  ornate  title  and  imposing  names  for  the  streets.  This 
map  will  show  all  lots  by  number,  the  position  of  the 
streets  and  also  the  exact  dimensions  of  all  the  standard 
lots.  The  dimensions  of  the  "  residuals,"  if  given  at  all, 
are  followed  by  the  "  plus-and-minus  "  sign  or  are  pre- 
ceded by  the  abbreviation  "  abt."  to  show  that  these 
dimensions  which  come  in  contact  with  the  claims  of  other 
ad  joiners  are  not  guaranteed.  The  same  reservation  is 
usually  employed  in  giving  the  depths  of  the  lots  which 
face  on  the  public  highway,  while  the  oblique  frontages 
caused  by  the  change  of  direction  of  the  side  line  of  the 
highway  are  frequently  left  entirely  blank.  Of  course  there 
are  lot  maps  where  all  these  dimensions  have  been  carefully 
worked  out  and  where  the  description  of  each  lot  is  com- 
plete and  accurate,  but  the  above  has,  I  think,  been  the 


HOUSE  LOTS  6l 

more  common  practice  in  lot  maps  of  the  kind  de- 
scribed. 

It  may  be  that  Mr.  Jones,  one  of  the  adjoiners  of  the 
property  described  above,  having  seen  how  successful  Mr. 
Smith  was  in  his  enterprise,  may  decide  to  do  the  same 
thing  and  cut  up  his  property  into  lots,  and  the  proba- 
bilities are  that  he  will  follow  the  same  general  plan.  If 
his  land  is  in  the  rear  of  Mr.  Smith's  he  will  continue  the 
main  street  through  his  own  property  and  will  make  cross 
streets  in  much  the  same  manner  as  did  Mr.  S.  If  his 
land  lies  at  one  side  he  will  cut  main  streets  from  the 
highway,  parallel  with  Mr.  Smith's,  and  will  continue  that 
gentleman's  cross  streets  at  least  to  the  nearest  main 
street. 

This  seems  a  very  simple  process,  but  in  reality  there 
are  certain  complications  which  frequently  arise.  Mr. 
Jones,  in  having  the  survey  made  for  the  map,  will  direct 
the  surveyor  to  follow  the  description  given  in  his  own 
deed  and  frequently  (especially  if  the  deeds  are  old)  this 
description  will  not  agree  in  all  details  with  the  description 
according  to  which  Mr.  Smith  laid  out  his  map.  If  the 
same  surveyor  does  the  work  in  both  cases  he  will,  or 
should,  use  his  best  endeavors  to  prevent  any  complica- 
tions, but  in  case  the  second  map  is  made  by  a  person  who 
is  unfamiliar  with  the  details  of  the  first  layout,  in  all 
probability  there  will  be  some  point  where  the  lots  of  one 
map  will  overlap  those  of  the  other  or  else  there  will  be  a 
gap  left  between.  I  do  not  think  that  this  trouble  can  be 


62  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

always  rightly  charged  against  the  surveyor,  for  the  reason 
that  if  he  were  to  do  sufficient  work  to  safeguard  against 
all  possibilities  of  complications  in  any  of  the  adjoining 
properties  which  might  at  some  future  day  be  cut  up  into 
lots,  he  would  have  the  pleasure  of  doing  a  large  amount 
of  work  at  his  own  expense.  In  all  probability  Mr.  Jones 
would  flatly  decline  to  pay  for  anything  but  the  work 
done  in  actually  cutting  up  his  land  and  in  determining  its 
boundaries  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  according  to 
the  description  contained  in  his  own  deed.  I  think  on  the 
whole  that  a  surveyor  has  done  his  duty  when  he  has  made 
all  reasonable  endeavor  to  prevent  misunderstanding,  and 
has  made  clear  on  his  map  what  dimensions  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  not  absolutely  certain.  If  the  person  who  draws 
the  deeds  is  equally  careful,  there  can  be  little  danger  of 
serious  controversy.  Half  the  strife  concerning  the  bound- 
aries of  residual  lots  arises  from  the  omission  of  the 
qualifying  terms  which  should  be  used  concerning  these 
doubtful  dimensions,  and  which  have  been  clearly  shown, 
or  should  have  been  clearly  shown,  by  the  surveyor  in  the 
map  on  which  the  deeds  were  based- 


CHAPTER  XI. 
HOUSE  LOTS  (concluded). 

ANOTHER  complication  which  sometimes  arises  is  in  the 
matter  of  extending  the  streets  from  one  property  to  an- 
other. An  illustration  may  be  in  point.  There  once  came 
into  my  hands  a  map  of  lots  laid  out  as  follows:  A  main 
street  ran  through  the  middle  of  the  property  with  a  cross 
street  at  right  angles  to  it.  At  the  extreme  edge  of  the 
property  lay  a  street,  which  we  will  call  "  Edge  Street," 
distant  400  feet  from  the  cross  street  and  parallel  with  it. 
Edge  Street  had  been  formed  from  a  residual  strip  30  feet 
wide  given  by  the  property  in  question  and  a  strip  20 
feet  wide  given  by  the  adjoining  property.  Four  hundred 
feet  from  the  cross  street  I  found  the  old  surveyor's  stake 
marking  the  intersection  of  Edge  Street  with  the  main 
street  before  mentioned,  and  I  set  the  street  monument 
accordingly.  At  this  stage  a  lot  owner  on  the  main  street 
made  a  protest  and  produced  deeds  showing  that  instead 
of  400  feet  the  distance  between  the  cross  street  and  Edge 
Street  was  really  405  feet.  A  search  in  the  County  Clerk's 
office  showed  that  there  was  on  file  there  a  map  of  the 
property  in  which,  previous  to  filing,  certain  dimensions 
had  been  erased  and  altered.  One  of  the  lots  had  been 
broadened  from  50  feet  to  55  feet  and  the  strip  thrown 

63 


64  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

into  Edge  Street  had  been  narrowed  from  30  feet  to  25 
feet.  In  accordance  with  the  recorded  map  I  moved  the 
monument  5  feet,  thus  increasing  the  distance  between 
streets  from  400  to  405-  feet.  It  will  be  seen  that  there  still 
existed  a  discrepancy  of  5  feet  between  the  corner  as  the 
original  surveyor  left  it  staked  in  the  field  and  the  corner 
as  shown  on  the  map  filed  with  the  County  Clerk.  In 
other  words,  the  stakes  in  the  field  had  never  been  moved 
to  fit  the  revised  map  placed  on  file.  Under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances the  final  establishment  of  the  corner  should 
have  settled  all  trouble,  but  it  had  happened  that  already 
the  owner  of  the  adjoining  property  had  cut  it  up  into 
lots  and  had  extended  Edge  Street  through  the  entire 
length  of  it.  Unfortunately  the  surveyor  had  extended 
this  street  from  the  stakes  existing  in  the  field,  having  no 
possible  way  of  knowing  that  they  did  not  agree  with  the 
map  filed  at  the  County  Seat.  This  extension  of  Edge 
Street  was  opened,  lots  were  sold  along  it,  trees  were 
planted  and  houses  built.  The  result  of  the  discovery  of 
the  error  of  location  of  the  first  part  of  Edge  Street  and  its 
correction  by  moving  the  whole  alignment  5  feet  can  readily 
be  seen.  In  the  first  property  this  shifting  was  easily 
effected  since  this  part  of  Edge  Street  had  never  been  im- 
proved, but  the  permanent  improvements  of  Edge  Street 
in  the  adjoining  property  made  such  a  "  moving  over  " 
impossible.  As  a  result,  at  the  boundary  line  between  the 
two  properties  the  street  "  broke  joints  "  to  the  amount 
of  5  feet,  and  when  this  private  street  later  became  a 


HOUSE  LOTS  65 

public  highway  the  matter  had  to  be  adjusted  by  inserting 
a  small  oblique  course  to  join  these  two  unmatched  por- 
tions. 

It  quite  frequently  happens  that  where  the  ground  is 
uneven,  careful  measurements  will  show  that  there  is  not 
sufficient  land  between  clearly  established  streets  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  map  or  of  the  deeds  which  have  already 
been  filed.  Sometimes,  rarely,  in  auction  sales  of  lots, 
glaring  errors  will  exist  in  dimensions.  I  remember  one 
property  where  such  errors  occurred  as  the  following, 

Sales  dimension,  420  feet,  actual  dimension,  412.1  feet; 

Sales  dimension,  335  feet,  actual  dimension,  355.5  feet; 

Sales  dimension,  150  feet,  actual  dimension,  130.75  feet; 
with  others  of  the  same  nature.  Unfortunately  in  the 
haste  of  the  sale  these  lots  were  all  sold  by  specified  dimen- 
sions without  a  single  qualifying  word.  It  can  readily  be 
seen  that  the  final  adjustment  was  more  profitable  to  the 
surveyor  than  to  the  parties  of  the  first  and  second  parts. 

How  can  a  surveyor  bring  order  out  of  such  chaos  as 
this?  How  can  he  adjust  all  the  discrepancies  in  the  work 
of  those  who  have  gone  before  him?  The  answer  is  simple 
-he  cannot.  But  he  can  do  a  great  deal  toward  miti- 
gating conditions.  He  must  be  able  to  gather  all  informa- 
tion bearing  on  the  problems  and  weigh  it  accurately,  he 
must  be  able  to  interpret  a  deed  to  a  nicety  and  to  deter- 
mine unerringly  the  priority  of  conflicting  claims,  he  must 
be  willing  to  bring  about  friendly  relations  and  mutual 
concessions  between  adjoiners  and  he  can  advise  his  clients 


66  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

against  accepting  unsatisfactory  deeds.  Beyond  all  else 
he  must  be  ready  to  go  over  with  endless  patience  innu- 
merable repetitions  of  detail  with  interested  parties  who 
are  frequently  of  willing  mind  but  of  slow  comprehension. 
In  short  he  must  do  all  his  work  in  such  a  thorough  and 
painstaking  manner  that  any  one  coming  after  him  may 
find  nothing  to  add  to  it. 

Of  one  thing,  however,  I  am  firmly  convinced,  that  it  is 
useless  for  a  surveyor  to  go  into  a  strange  subdivided  prop- 
erty and  locate  any  one  lot  with  quickness,  ease  and  accu- 
racy. I  have  seen  the  attempt  fail  too  many  times.  If  one 
could  be  certain  that  the  first  layout  was  absolutely  accu- 
rate and  that  the  stakes  had  never  been  displaced  it  would 
be  a  different  matter;  but  such  is  not  the  case.  Errors  of 
inches  and  sometimes  of  feet  often  occur;  right  angles 
seldom  measure  exactly  90  degrees  and  stakes  are  fre- 
quently moved  out  of  line  by  people  stumbling  over  them. 
If  the  surveyor  would  rest  with  an  easy  mind  he  must 
check  up  a  sufficient  number  of  streets,  blocks  and  lots,  to 
be  sure  that  he  has  located  his  special  lot  in  strict  accord- 
ance with  the  boundaries  of  the  streets  and  the  claims  of 
other  landholders.  To  do  this  he  will  frequently  have  to 
put  in  many  hours  of  work  from  which  he  must  expect  no 
immediate  returns.  But  the  fact  that  he  has  taken  pains 
to  locate  the  lots  accurately,  that  he  has  worked  out  the 
details  of  the  property  and  that  he  (and  very  likely  he 
only)  knows  where  the  lines  truly  run,  practically  insures 
that  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  future  work  in  that  property 


HOUSE   LOTS  67 

will  eventually  come  to  him  for  execution.  It  is  simply 
another  illustration  of  the  fact  that  honesty  is  the  best 
policy. 

There  is  one  other  form  of  the  lot  problem  which  should 
be  mentioned.  In  earlier  times  it  was  a  frequent  occur- 
rence for  a  land  owner  to  sell  a  succession  of  house  lots 
from  his  property.  These  small  holdings  adjoined  each 
other  and  were  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  with  very  uncertain 
relations  to  the  highway  which  they  bordered.  Happily 
they  were  usually  fenced  at  an  early  date,  and  the  evi- 
dences of  early  possession  are  of  vastly  greater  value  than 
the  deed  dimensions.  Front  and  rear  dimensions  are  usu- 
ally fairly  accurate,  but  a  common  line  between  two  neigh- 
bors will  often  have  quite  dissimilar  lengths  in  the  two 
deeds.  This  is  due  largely  to  the  uncertain  condition  of 
the  highway  line.  As  stated,  the  lines  of  old  possession  are 
very  important,  but  in  deciding  a  boundary  controversy 
it  is  never  safe  to  assume  that  any  one  line  of  possession 
is  sufficiently  correct  to  be  taken  as  a  starting  point  for 
measurements.  A  sufficient  number  of  deeds  must  be 
examined  and  a  sufficient  number  of  lots  checked  up  to 
make  certain  of  the  accuracy  of  the  possession  line  in 
question.  It  may  then  be  used  as  a  point  of  departure, 

To  illustrate,  a  certain  street  corner  which  was  in  dispute 
was  recorded  as  being  located  "  25  links  west  of  lot  belong- 
ing to  William  Smith."  The  width  of  the  Smith  lot  was 
measured  and  found  to  be  exactly  50  feet  —  a  standard 
size.  Then  the  street  corner  was  made  25  links  beyond. 


68  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

To  leave  no  chance  of  error  the  deed  of  the  Smith  lot  was 
procured,  and  it  was  found  that  the  front  dimension  was 
not  50  feet  but  "  74  links  of  chain  "  or  48.84  feet.  This 
led  to  a  checking  up  of  all  other  properties  necessary,  with 
the  result  that  all  lines  of  possession  were  found  to  be 
essentially  correct  except  a  part  of  the  west  fence  of  the 
Smith  lot  which  was  comparatively  new.  After  this  had 
been  established  it  was  easy  to  locate  the  street  corner 
accurately  and  satisfactorily. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  there  are  no  fixed  rules 
which  can  be  laid  down  for  the  accurate  handling  of  old 
lot  layouts.  Satisfactory  results  can  be  obtained  only 
through  care,  patience  and  common  sense  and,  above  all, 
honesty. 

So  much  for  the  interpretation  of  old  lot  layouts ;  now  a 
word  with  reference  to  the  construction  of  new  ones. 
With  reference  to  general  plan  there  is  little  to  say,  for  the 
reason  that  the  owner  of  the  land  has  usually  some  pretty 
clear  idea  of  just  exactly  what  he  desires  —  he  simply 
wants  the  surveyor  to  carry  out  his  design.  In  cases 
where  there  is  no  such  preconceived  plan  one  or  two  sug- 
gestions may  not  be  out  of  place. 

1.  Roads  and  streets  should  be  located,  as  far  as  possible, 
with  a  view  to  economy  in  construction  and  maintenance, 
while  every  effort  should  be  made  to  so  place  the  streets 
that  after  grading  they  shall  be  reasonably  accessible  from 
the  lots  bordering  them. 

2.  If  the  land  is  to  be  cut  up  into  standard  lots  there  is 


HOUSE  LOTS  69 

very  little  room  for  independence  of  action,  but  if  it  is  to 
be  divided  into  somewhat  variable  plots  much  can  be  done 
in  the  way  of  locating  them  with  reference  to  picturesque- 
ness  and  accessibility.  One  further  point  might  be  made. 
Nearly  every  property  has  some  undesirable  land  scattered 
about  in  one  or  more  places.  It  is  a  mistake  to  make 
any  one  plot  consist  of  undesirable  land  only,  since  it 
must  be  sold  at  a  greatly  reduced  price  if  at  all.  If,  how- 
ever, you  so  divide  the  property  that  this  undesirable  land 
shall  be  shared  in  small  quantities  by  a  number  of  plots 
otherwise  wholly  desirable,  the  difficulty  has  been  over- 
come. A  purchaser  naturally  expects  that  he  will  get  a 
little  inferior  land  with  the  good  and,  if  he  gets  a  good 
house  site  and  lawn,  he  is  perfectly  willing  to  take  a  little 
less  satisfactory  land  on  some  other  part  of  his  plot.  In 
other  words,  the  idea  is  not  to  cut  the  land  into  extra  fine 
plots  and  poor  plots,  but  to  so  divide  it  that  each  and 
every  plot  shall  have  sufficient  points  of  excellence  to  thor- 
oughly compensate  for  the  less  desirable  features  which 
must  be  distributed  in  general  to  all  purchasers.  Briefly 
put,  the  plots  must  all  be  salable. 

3.  It  is  not  good  practice  to  subdivide  land  in  the  office. 
If  the  original  traverse  of  the  property  has  been  exception- 
ally accurate  this  may  be  done  with  a  fair  degree  of  safety; 
but  it  so  frequently  happens  that  one  error  offsets  another, 
that  a  fine  balance  of  an  entire  traverse  is  no  guarantee 
that  the  work  is  as  perfect  in  all  its  details  as  this  balance 
would  seem  to  show.  It  is  my  belief  that  all  streets  should 


70  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

be  actually  laid  on  the  ground  and  their  intersections  with 
the  boundaries  of  the  property  actually  determined  in  the 
field.  All  complete  blocks  and  all  residual  blocks  should 
also  be  measured  before  any  attempt  is  made  to  give  even 
the  approximate  dimensions  of  residual  lots.  This  method, 
while  more  laborious  than  others,  is  sure  to  give  good  re- 
sults, and  will  avoid  the  annoying  discrepancies  which  are 
so  frequently  found  in  properties  divided  by  methods  of 
computation  only. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
HIGHWAY  RECORDS. 

EXCEPT  perhaps  the  study  of  the  evolution  of  the  pri- 
vate ownership  of  land,  there  is  nothing  more  attractive  in 
the  realm  of  surveying  than  the  evolution  of  the  Highway 
or  Public  Road.  Nor  need  this  statement  be  confined  to 
the  subject  in  its  broadest  sense  —  the  study  of  road 
building  from  its  earliest  times  to  the  present;  it  is  equally 
interesting  to  study  the  evolution  of  the  road  system  of  a 
town  as  set  forth  in  the  complete  Town  Records. 

In  general,  history  of  the  roads  of  an  old  district  is  simple. 
Early  records  made  soon  after  the  settlement  simply  state 
that  a  road  was  established  from  such  a  place  to  such  a 
place.  There  is  no  attempt  at  description  by  course  and 
distance  and  seldom  by  landmarks  or  adjoiners,  though 
the  width  of  the  road  is  frequently  given.  Later  follows 
the  description  by  landmarks  or  by  a  statement  of  the 
properties  which  the  road  touched  in  its  course;  later 
still,  the  distance  in  rods  from  point  to  point  appears. 
Subsequently  come  the  descriptions  by  bearings  to  degrees 
or  quarter  degrees  and  distances  in  chains  and  links,  and 
it  is  in  this  form  that  the  Road  Records  of  most  rural 
highways,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  observe,  actually 

exist.    At  the  time  in  their  history  when  surveys  were 

71 


72  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

made  to  this  particular  degree  of  accuracy  the  roads  were 
already  so  well  established  that  they  required  no  subse- 
quent change,  and  their  records  have  continued  to  exist 
in  this  form.  Later  roads  are  more  minutely  described, 
but  they  are  seldom  the  main  roads  of  a  community. 

Recent  roads,  as  just  stated,  are  usually  fully  described 
in  the  public  records,  and  in  further  explanation  maps  are 
placed  on  file.  Furthermore  the  actual  location  of  such 
road  lines  on  the  ground  is  usually  clearly  marked  by 
stone  monuments  accurately  set.  Such  roads  present  few 
serious  problems  to  the  surveyor,  but  when  he  is  called 
upon  to  re-locate  from  the  public  records  the  actual  lines 
of  old  roads  inaccurately  surveyed  and  ambiguously,  if 
quaintly,  recorded,  —  roads  where  greedy  possession  has 
encroached  amazingly  upon  the  public  easement,  where 
time  and  man  have  joined  forces  to  obliterate  the  ancient 
landmarks,  —  his  problem  is  of  an  entirely  different  kind. 

Roads  are  all  supposed  to  have  a  certain  legal  status 
which  is  commonly  known  as  a  "  public  easement."  The- 
oretically the  road  is  still  the  private  property  of  the  par- 
ties who  adjoin  it,  with  the  understanding  that  they  have 
loaned  it  to  the  town  for  use  as  a  highway  for  so  long  as 
the  town  shall  need  it.  Such  roads  are  said  to  be  "  re- 
leased "  to  the  town  and  certain  legal  steps  are  necessary 
in  order  to  make  the  release  binding.  It  not  infrequently 
happens  that  through  carelessness  or  ignorance  these  legal 
steps  have  not  been  properly  taken  and,  in  case  of  litiga- 
tion between  the  town  and  the  adjoiners  to  the  road,  much 


HIGHWAY  RECORDS  73 

annoyance  arises  therefrom.  Some  roads  are  actually 
deeded  to  the  town  and  become  thereby  the  town's  actual 
property,  but  in  the  country,  at  least,  these  are  rare.  Old 
records  also  sometimes  describe  certain  roads  as  "  regu- 
lated "  by  the  highway  commissioners.  This  appears  to 
have  been  a  somewhat  irregular  and  arbitrary  process,  a 
"  regulated  "  road  continuing  as  such  on  the  record  unless 
somebody  with  a  grievance  brought  the  law  to  bear  upon  it. 

With  the  legal  phase  of  these  various  forms  of  record  the 
surveyor  has  little  concern.  He  must  see  that  his  work  has 
been  in  accordance  with  the  record  and  that  he  has  found 
the  whole  of  that  record;  its  legality  is  the  concern  of  the 
town's  legal  adviser.  I  have  said  that  it  is  important  that 
the  surveyor  should  find  the  whole  of  the  record  and  this 
perhaps  needs  a  word  of  explanation.  If  a  road  were  sur- 
veyed and  recorded  once  for  all  the  matter  of  locating  it  on 
the  ground  would  become  sufficiently  difficult  after  the 
lapse  of  years,  but  it  frequently  happens  that  the  record  is 
fragmentary  and  the  fragments  are  hard  to  identify  in  the 
mass  of  public  records. 

The  normal  history  of  a  main  country  road  is  usually 
somewhat  as  follows,  especially  if  it  is  a  rather  lengthy 
one  joining  two  or  more  villages.  In  the  early  days  of  a 
community  public  convenience  and  topographical  condi- 
tions determine  travel  along  a  certain  route  which,  in  the 
expiration  of  time,  is  recognized  as  a  public  thoroughfare, 
although  it  may  not  appear  at  all  on  the  public  records  or 
perhaps  only  in  the  most  general  terms.  Later,  as  the 


74  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

community  becomes  more  thickly  settled  and  the  value  of 
property  increases,  there  is  a  public  demand  that  the  legal 
status  of  the  road  shall  be  defined  and  its  boundaries 
officially  established.  This  forms  the  first  definite  record 
and  it  is  a  fortunate  matter  if  the  first  record  remains  also 
the  last.  It  frequently  happens,  however,  that  later  in 
the  public  records  you  may  find  a  petition  to  have  a  por- 
tion of  this  road  altered.  There  are  many  reasons  for 
doing  this.  It  may  be  that  the  parties  adjoining  the  road 
on  both  sides  may  for  some  cause  desire  it.  It  may  be 
that  the  road  requires  straightening  or  that  a  slight  change 
in  the  location  of  some  portion  will  materially  reduce  the 
public  expense  of  maintenance.  At  any  rate  the  altera- 
tion is  made  and  it  is  hardly  ever  known  of  a  case  where 
such  occurrence  of  alteration  has  been  noted  on  the  original 
record.  It  also  frequently  happens  that  the  road  is  altered 
under  an  entirely  different  name  from  that  which  it  bore 
in  the  original  description,  and  that,  at  the  present  day,  the 
road  is  known  by  an  entirely  different  name  from  either. 

For  instance  there  is  a  highway  which  at  the  present  day 
is  almost  invariably  called  the  Sandis  Hill  Road,  but  which 
was  originally  recorded  in  1827  under  the  somewhat  labo- 
rious title  of  "  Highway  leading  from  Silas  Marner's  Barn 
running  southerly  till  it  intersects  the  highway  leading 
from  Townsend  Jackson's  to  Cold  Spring."  In  1832  it  was 
altered  under  the  title  of  "  Pitkin  Hollow  Highway."  The 
identity  of  the  two  roads  can  be  discovered  only  by  one 
who  has  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  names  of  the  long 


HIGHWAY  RECORDS  75 

dead  adjoiners,  this  knowledge  being  aided  by  an  incidental 
record  reference  to  an  intersection  with  a  third  old  road 
the  name  of  which  has  also  changed.  The  searcher's  atten- 
tion having  been  arrested  by  these  items  of  description, 
his  conclusions  are  confirmed  by  rinding  a  careful  entry, 
under  the  alteration,  of  the  date  and  page  of  the  original 
description.  Following  is  a  copy  of  the  record  of  the  alter- 
ation in  full,  as  it  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  wording  of 
an  old  highway  record  and  because  it  furnishes  several 
excellent  illustrations  of  the  difficulties  which  beset  the 
surveyor  who  actually  attempts  to  locate  the  bounds  of 
such  a  highway. 

"  We  the  Commissioners  of  highways  of  the  Town  of 
Oysterbay  in  the  County  of  Queens  having  in  persuance  of 
the  Statute  entitled  l  An  Act  regulating  highways  and 
bridges  in  the  Counties  of  Suffolk,  Queens  and  Kings  ' 
passed  February  23rd  1830  taken  a  view  of  the  highway  in 
the  said  Town  of  Oysterbay  leading  from  Pitkin  hollow  to 
the  dwelling  house  of  Horton  Worman  and  finding  said 
highway  to  require  alteration  in  some  parts  thereof  as  the 
same  was  regulated  and  established  by  the  Commissioners 
of  highways  of  the  said  Town  of  Oysterbay  on  the  6th  day 
of  March  1827  and  recorded  in  the  book  of  the  Records  of 
highways  of  the  said  Town  of  Oysterbay  pages  183,  184 
and  185,  Do  hereby  order  and  direct  that  the  said  highway 
be  so  far  altered  as  that  the  center  or  middle  line  thereof 
shall  run  as  follows  to  Wit  .  .  .  Beginning  31  Links  East- 


76  BOUNDARIES   AND   LANDMARKS 

ward  from  a  Walnut  tree  on  the  West  on  Caesar  Brown's 
Land,  and  running  from  thence  S  5!°  W  2.35  Ch?  a  poplar 
tree  making  the  East  Line  thence  S  14°  E  1.81  Ch- —  thence 
S  35°  E  5.44  Ch?  —  thence  S  33^°  E  2.47  Ch?  —  thence  S 
3°  E  4.59  Ch9-  thence  S  4^°  E  7.15  Ch?  — Thence  S  J°  E 
2.59  Ch-  an  apple  tree  on  the  West  Line  —  thence  S  12^°  E 
2. 20  Ch-  a  white  oak  tree  one  foot  East  of  the  East  Line 
and  a  walnut  tree  one  foot  West  of  the  West  Line — thence 
S  33 y  E  1.24  Ch?  a  wild  cherry  tree  on  the  West  Line  — 
thence  S  44°  E  1.08  Ch?,  thence  S  39°  E  2.72  Ch?  an  apple 
tree  on  the  West  Line— thence  S  28°  E  2.88  Ch?— thence  S 
16°  E  4.74  Ch?  a  white  oak  tree  on  the  W— thence  S  12^°  E 
3.19  Ch?  —  thence  S  if0  E  1.92  Ch?  a  walnut  tree  on  the 
West  Line  —  thence  S  i6j°  E  till  it  strikes  the  road  leading 
from  Robert  Calwell's  to  Horton  Worman's  —  And  that 
the  outlines  or  extreme  boundaries  of  the  said  highway 
shall  be  one  and  a  half  rods  on  each  side  thereof,  so  that 
the  said  highway  shall  be  three  rods  wide  throughout  .  .  . 
And  we  do  further  order  and  direct  that  the  Clerk  of  the 
said  Town  of  Oysterbay  forthwith  post  a  copy  of  this 
order  on  the  door  of  the  house  where  the  Annual  Town 
meeting  in  said  Town  was  last  held  .  .  .  Given  under  our 
hands  at  the  Town  of  Oysterbay  the  28th  day  of  July 
1832. 

THOMAS  COCK) 


Copy  posted  Aug.  6th,  1832       ISAAC  WEEDS 
Chs.  H.  Peters  JACOB  CROCKER 

T.  Clerk." 


Com  rl 


HIGHWAY  RECORDS  77 

Taken  as  old  records  go  the  above  is  a  very  satisfactory 
one  for  the  reason  that  a  large  number  of  landmarks  are 
specified.  But  it  will  be  noticed  that  many  points  essen- 
tial for  the  exact  location  of  the  road  upon  the  ground  are 
entirely  lacking.  For  instance  the  distance  of  the  starting 
point  from  the  walnut  tree  is  given  but  the  exact  bearing  is 
omitted,  the  general  term  "  eastward  "  being  used  instead. 
Also  there  is  not  the  remotest  attempt  to  define  the  point 
on  the  original  survey  where  the  alteration  begins  or  where 
it  ends,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  determine  to  what  courses 
the  alterations  apply.  There  is  no  way  of  telling  at  what 
points  on  the  side  lines  of  the  respective  courses  the  various 
landmarks  stand  —  we  only  know  that  a  certain  tree  stood 
somewhere  on  the  side  line  of  a  certain  course.  Finally, 
Who  was  Caesar  Brown  and  where  did  he  live?  As  a 
matter  of  fact  several  people  were  asked,  but  they  had 
never  heard  the  name.  Finally  I  went  to  one  of  the  oldest 
men  in  town  and  asked  him  about  it.  "  Yes,"  said  he, 
"  I  remember  Caesar  Brown  when  I  was  a  boy.  He  was 

an  old  man  and  that  he  lived  about  where  A 's  land  is. 

If  you  go  there  I  think  you  will  find  the  hole  where  the 
cellar  of  his  house  used  to  be."  On  visiting  the  place  the 
cellar  hole  was  easily  found  and,  what  was  more,  the  walnut 
tree,  though  dead,  was  still  standing. 

I  have  digressed  a  good  deal  from  the  main  line  of  thought, 
but  I  think  that  the  above  details  will  make  two  points 
clear:  first,  that  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  sufficiently  clear 
data  for  re-locating  an  old  road  with  even  approximate 


78  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

accuracy  and,  secondly,  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  obtain  the  complete  record  of  the  road  including  all 
changes  which  it  may  have  undergone. 

The  genesis  of  all  highways  is  not  the  same.  While 
many  come  from  the  legalizing  of  certain  ancient  traveled 
ways,  others  are  of  gradual  growth.  Under  the  general 
discussion  of  lot  layouts  it  has  been  shown  how  in  the  proc- 
ess of  developing  real  estate  a  street  may  have  successive 
stages  of  extension  as  it  is  carried  from  one  property  on 
into  another.  In  the  old  days  this  process  of  development 
was  so  gradual  that  some  years  might  intervene  between 
the  successive  steps  of  street  extension.  On  this  account 
it  frequently  happened  that  the  street  did  not  go  onto  the 
records  as  a  whole,  but  piece  by  piece,  each  section  fre- 
quently being  described  by  the  land  through  which  it  was 
laid  out  and  the  final  accepted  name  of  the  street  never 
appearing  at  all.  For  instance  we  will  say  that  a  street 
now  known  as  Summit  Street  runs  through  the  lands  of 
Smith,  Jones  and  Brown.  Smith  opened  the  portion 
through  his  land  first  and  it  was  described  on  the  records 
as  "  Road  through  James  Smith's  Land."  Five  years  later 
Jones  decided  to  extend  it  through  his  property  and  it 
was  duly  recorded  as  "  Highway  through  William  Jones' 
Land."  Finally  Brown  carried  it  through  his  land  to  the 
highway  adjoining  him,  naming  it  "  Summit  Street."  It 
would  then  very  likely  be  recorded  as  "  Summit  Street 
through  John  Brown's  Land  to  the  Turnpike."  To  get  a 
complete  record  of  Summit  Street  all  three  records  must 
be  looked  up  and  fitted  together. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RE-RUNNING   OLD   HIGHWAY  RECORDS. 

THE  actual  process  of  "  running  out  "  an  old  road  record 
is  even  more  difficult  in  practice  than  it  is  in  theory.  No 
actual  rules  can  be  given,  but  some  general  suggestions  may 
be  helpful.  It  will  readily  be  seen  that  in  the  case  of  a  road 
several  miles  in  length,  even  though  the  starting  point  can 
be  exactly  found,  an  error  of  one  minute  in  the  direction  of 
the  first  course  will  produce  an  enormous  departure  at 
the  end  of  the  run.  When  one  also  takes  into  considera- 
tion that  the  original  survey  was  probably  run  with  a 
compass  and  that  no  attempt  was  made  in  most  cases  to 
read  more  closely  than  quarter  degrees,  it  will  be  seen  that 
all  hope  of  exact  re-location  by  instrumental  methods  only 
must  be  abandoned  at  once. 

If  the  surveyor  has  been  so  fortunate  as  to  be  able  to 
locate  the  starting  point  and  compute  the  variation  of  the 
compass,  what  is  the  next  step  after  running  and  marking 
the  first  course?  Shall  the  succeeding  courses  be  run  by 
the  needle  or  shall  they  be  located  by  turning  off  deflec- 
tion angles?  Theoretically  it  seems  to  me  that  the  former 
is  the  better  method,  since  by  it  one  may  probably  put 
oneself  more  nearly  under  the  conditions  under  which  the 
original  surveyor  worked.  In  actual  practice  it  has  been 
found  that  better  results  have  been  obtained  by  turning  off 

79 


80  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

the  deflection  angles.  Let  the  second  course,  then,  be 
turned  off  and  run  according  to  the  record  and  the  end  of 
it  marked.  The  succeeding  courses  are  to  be  run  in  the 
same  manner  until  the  next  landmark  is  reached,  unless 
there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  work  is  going 
seriously  wrong.  It  is  very  seldom,  however,  that  the 
newly  surveyed  line  is  found  to  have  exactly  the  same  re- 
lations to  the  landmarks  that  the  record  demands.  If  the 
error  of  direction  is  large  perhaps  the  simplest  way  is  to 
make  some  effort  to  approximate  the  angular  correction 
necessary,  after  which  the  courses  may  be  re-run.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind  that  during  all  this  process  most  careful 
account  should  be  taken  of  all  things  that  may  help  to 
throw  light  on  the  problem.  Marks  on  trees  along  the 
sides  of  the  road,  the  position  of  ancient  lines  of  possession, 
the  testimony  of  adjoiners  and  the  descriptions  contained 
in  their  deeds  are  all  possible  valuable  sources  of  informa- 
tion which  must  not  be  slighted. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  both  ends  of  some  important 
course  are  described  with  such  detail  with  reference  to 
their  direction  and  distance  from  the  corners  of  buildings 
still  standing  that  it  is  possible  to  locate  this  course  imme- 
diately. When  this  condition  exists  the  first  running  of 
the  courses  will  probably  approximate  closely  to  the  original 
line  of  survey.  Yet  even  in  this  case  the  final  location  of 
the  line  must  in  all  probability  be  based  on  common-sense 
conclusions  drawn  from  a  study  of  all  the  evidence  obtain- 
able. 


RE-RUNNING  OLD   HIGHWAY  RECORDS  8 1 

The  surveyor  will  be  aided  in  reaching  these  conclusions 
by  remembering  the  three  following  generalities  which  are 
well  substantiated  by  fact. 

1.  That  the  original  record,  while  an  invaluable  general 
guide,  is  only  approximately  accurate. 

2.  That  in  old  roads  the  record  was  originally  made  in 
accordance  with  the  main  lines  of  possession  then  existing, 
and  that  such  lines  of  possession  as  were  at  variance  with 
the  newly  recorded  road  were  probably  moved  into  their 
proper  position  at  an  early  date. 

3.  That  the  stations  of  the  original  survey  —  the  points 
where  the  course  changed  —  were  very  frequently  exactly 
at  those  points  where  the  road  was  intersected  by  the  cross 
fences  between  adjoining  properties. 

The  previous  suggestions  apply  more  especially  to  find- 
ing the  approximate  position  of  the  line  of  the  old  record. 
When  this  approximate  position  has  been  found  —  a  posi- 
tion for  the  line  where  it  agrees  fairly  well  with  the  record 
and  the  sum  total  of  the  evidence  obtainable.  The  follow- 
ing method  has  been  found  to  be  excellent  for  getting  it 
into  its  final  and  most  nearly  accurate  location.  Mark 
each  station  with  a  stake  if  possible  —  if  not,  with  a  spike 
well  driven  down  —  and  take  sufficient  ties  to  every  sta- 
tion so  that  its  exact  location  can  be  found  again  without 
fail.  Make  an  accurate  traverse  of  the  courses  thus  marked 
and  determine  carefully  the  direction  and  distance  from 
the  most  convenient  stations  to  every  landmark  which  can 
be  identified  and  to  every  point  whose  position  must  be 


82  BOUNDARIES  AND   LANDMARKS 

known.  These  notes  should  then  be  plotted  in  the  office 
on  a  large  sheet  of  paper  on  which  should  also  be  drawn 
two  rectangular  axes  —  one  running  north  and  south  and 
one  east  and  west  —  conveniently  placed.  Next  every  co- 
ordinate point  in  the  survey  with  reference  to  these  axes 
should  be  computed  and  properly  noted  on  the  drawing. 
The  next  thing  is  to  determine  by  careful  study  how  far 
and  in  what  direction  the  surveyed  line  must  be  moved  in 
order  to  bring  it  as  nearly  as  possible  into  the  same  relation 
with  the  landmarks  as  that  shown  by  the  record.  Valuable 
suggestions  are  often  obtained  by  plotting  both  the  new 
survey  and  the  old  record  on  separate  pieces  of  tracing 
paper  and  superimposing  them. 

Having  determined  upon  the  amount  which  the  new  line 
must  be  moved  in  order  to  bring  it  into  its  proper  relation 
to  the  landmarks,  compute  new  coordinates  for  each  of  its 
stations  in  the  new  position.  It  is  then  a  simple  matter  to 
compute  the  direction  and  distance  for  each  station  from 
the  stake  left  in  the  road  to  the  point  which  the  station 
must  finally  occupy.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  coordinates  is  of  universal  application.  By  far 
the  greater  part  of  the  old  road  records  describe  the  survey 
of  the  center  line  and  the  distance  from  the  center  line  of 
the  side  lines.  The  coordinates  of  these  center-line  sta- 
tions, either  approximate  or  real,  being  known,  it  is  mani- 
festly easy  to  compute  the  distance  and  direction  to  any 
point  on  the  outer  boundaries  of  the  road  and  also  to  de- 
termine the  relation  of  any  point  on  these  lines  to  any 


RE-RUNNING   OLD   HIGHWAY  RECORDS  83 

building  or  obstruction,  the  position  of  which  is  in  question. 
Familiarity  with  this  method  of  computation  cannot  be  too 
strenuously  urged. 

While  the  great  majority  of  country-road  records  give 
the  description  by  the  center  line,  there  are  a  few  which  de- 
scribe one  of  the  side  lines  instead.  These  are  most  easily 
handled  by  computing  from  the  record  of  the  side  line  what 
the  center  line  would  be  and  then  running  out  this  center 
line.  You  undoubtedly  will  find  that  in  all  cases  it  is 
thoroughly  profitable  to  plot  the  old  record  with  all  its 
landmarks  on  paper  before  going  into  the  field.  It  fre- 
quently happens  that  past  masters  of  highways  were  not 
past  masters  of  the  English  language,  and  many  old  records 
are  exceedingly  complicated  and  confused  in  their  wording. 
If  the  interpretation  is  carefully  worked  out  step  by  step 
and  transferred  to  paper  in  actual  lines  and  points  the 
meaning  usually  becomes  perfectly  clear.  A  blueprint  of 
this  drawing  is  a  most  useful  thing  when  it  comes  to  the 
actual  outdoor  work. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  in  searching  the  records  for 
the  description  of  a  particular  road  it  is  difficult  to  identify 
that  record  when  found.  If,  then,  the  record  believed  to  be 
the  correct  one  be  plotted  on  paper  and  the  resulting  map 
be  compared  with  the  map  of  the  desired  road  as  shown 
on  the  State  Atlas  Sheets  or  some  other  reliable  chart,  it  is 
usually  very  easy  to  decide  whether  further  search  is  nec- 
essary. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LAYING   OUT  NEW  ROADS. 

IT  would  not  be  right  to  leave  the  general  subject  of 
roads  without  a  few  words  of  suggestion  in  the  matter  of 
laying  out  and  recording  new  highways.  If  the  surveyor 
comes  in  touch  at  all  with  the  local  government  of  his  town 
his  first  work  will  very  probably  be  to  lay  out  a  new  road, 
or,  more  probably,  to  make  a  survey  of  a  private  road 
already  existing  in  order  that  it  may  be  placed  upon  the 
records  of  the  town  and  made  a  public  highway.  The 
common  methods  of  procedure  in  such  cases  is  for  a  num- 
ber of  property  owners  along  a  road  to  petition  the  town 
to  put  the  road  on  the  highway  list.  If  the  petition  is 
accepted  all  persons  owning  land  affected  are  called  upon 
to  "  sign  a  release,"  by  which  they  agree  to  release  the  town 
from  all  liability  for  any  injury  which  may  come  to  their 
property  through  the  opening  of  this  road .  The  next  thing 
is  to  survey  and  mark  the  road  in  order  that  a  description 
of  it  may  be  put  upon  record  and  a  description  incorpo- 
rated in  the  release.  The  surveyor  is  expected  to  make 
this  survey  and  to  prepare  the  map  and  description. 

From  my  own  experience  I  am  of  the  belief  that  the  de- 
termination of  the  exact  boundary  of  such  a  private  road 
is  a  rather  delicate  affair.  Among  the  petitioners  there 

84 


LAYING  OUT  NEW  ROADS  85 

are  pretty  sure  to  be  one  or  more  who  are  not  very  enthu- 
siastic in  the  matter  and  who  are  very  jealous  of  their 
rights.  Of  course  all  principles  of  engineering  require  that 
a  road  should  consist  of  straight  lines  and  satisfactory 
curves,  all  laid  with  reference  to  ease  of  construction  and 
economy  of  maintenance.  The  prejudices  and  jealousies  of 
adjoiners,  however,  frequently  make  such  a  plan  hopeless 
of  execution,  and  it  is  possible  to  place  the  road  only  in  that 
location  where  they  are  willing  to  have  it  go.  The  first 
and  most  important  thing  is  to  determine  accurately  where 
each  owner's  private  boundary  along  the  road  is  located. 
Some  owners  will  be  willing  to  make  concessions  to  the 
common  good,  while  some  will  not  yield  an  inch.  All 
that  the  surveyor  can  do  is  to  keep  on  hand  an  inexhaust- 
ible supply  of  patience  and  good  nature  and  to  do  the 
best  he  can  with  the  conditions  as  he  finds  them. 

The  survey  of  the  road  having  been  made,  the  boundaries 
should  be  marked  after  the  method  commonly  employed 
by  the  town,  though  stone  monuments  should  be  used  if 
possible.  Since  stakes  and  even  monuments  are  sometimes 
buried  and  at  times  actually  dug  up,  it  is  very  desirable  that 
there  should  be  some  additional  means  of  locating  the  lines 
of  the  road  easily  and  accurately.  Accordingly  all  im- 
portant points  on  the  survey  should  have  their  location 
clearly  defined  with  reference  to  plain  and  permanent  land- 
marks wherever  this  is  possible,  and  these  "  ties  "  should 
be  shown  on  the  map,  though  for  the  sake  of  clearness  they 
may  sometimes  be  wisely  omitted  from  the  written  record. 


86  BOUNDARIES  AND  LANDMARKS 

The  description  prepared  for  entry  should  be  constructed 
with  great  care.  It  should  convey  the  intended  meaning 
without  a  shadow  of  ambiguity,  and  it  should,  in  no  par- 
ticular, mean  either  more  or  less  than  it  was  intended  to 
mean.  It  is  perhaps  well  to  go  over  the  first  draft  of  such 
a  description  with  the  town's  legal  adviser  before  offering 
it  for  record,  in  order  that  no  loophole  may  be  left  for 
future  litigation. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  THE   SURVEYOR. 

THIS  completes  the  suggestions  which  I  wished  to  offer, 
but  I  would  like  in  conclusion  to  say  a  few  words  in  a 
general  manner.  This  very  brief  treatise  is  not  intended 
as  a  handbook  for  surveyors  in  any  way;  it  is  not  didactic 
—  it  is  suggestive  only.  It  is  intended  to  give  a  little  light 
to  men  thrown,  for  perhaps  the  first  time,  on  their  own 
responsibility  or  brought  face  to  face  with  problems  which 
they  have  not  met  in  their  previous  experience.  For  the 
solution  of  these  problems  no  general  rules  can  be  laid 
down;  each  man  must  work  out  his  own  salvation.  All 
that  I  hope  to  do  is  to  give  a  few  suggestions  from  hard- 
won  personal  knowledge  which  may  make  the  road  a  little 
easier. 

The  problems  of  boundary  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all 
surveying,  for  one  must  know  where  a  line  is  before  he  can 
measure  it,  and  the  solution  of  these  problems  calls  for  the 
-_same  powers  of  accurate  observation  and  of  consecutive 
and  logical  thought  that  are  demanded  for  successful  work 
in  any  branch  of  modern  science.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
the  successful  surveyor  must  be  accurate  in  his  instrument 
work  and  in  his  computation;  yet,  if  he  would  really  suc- 
ceed, he  must  go  beyond  this.  He  must  add  to  this  the 

87 


88  BOUNDARIES   AND   LANDMARKS 

patience  to  collect  all  the  evidence  which  can  be  found 
bearing  upon  the  case  in  hand,  together  with  the  ability  to 
weigh  this  evidence  to  a  nicety  and  to  determine  clearly 
the  course  pointed  out  by  the  balance  of  probability.  If, 
in  addition,  he  possesses  enough  imagination  to  cast  pleasant 
lights  across  the  desert  of  dry  details,  he  should  be  success- 
ful indeed. 

The  watchwords  of  the  surveyor  are  Patience  and  Com- 
mon Sense. 

The  vocation  of  the  Civil  Engineer  has  always  been  in- 
vested with  a  dignity  of  its  own.  But  it  seems  to  me  that 
of  late  years,  in  paying  him  the  honor  which  is  his  just  due, 
we  are  apt  to  fix  a  little  too  wide  a  gap  between  him  and 
his  humbler  brother,  the  Surveyor.  We  give  engineering 
the  chief  attention  in  our  technical  schools,  but  surveying 
we  are  wont  to  relegate  to  the  Freshman  class.  Yet  the 
profession  of  the  Surveyor  deals  with  one  of  the  oldest  and 
most  fundamental  facts  of  human  society  —  the  possession 
and  inheritance  of  land.  Fire,  flood  and  earthquake  wipe 
out  the  greatest  works  of  the  engineer,  but  the  land  con- 
tinueth  forever. 

Curiously  enough  the  Surveyor  is  isolated  in  his  calling, 
and  therein  lie  his  responsibility  and  his  temptations.  The 
lawyer  comes  nearest  to  understanding  the  work,  yet  of 
the  actual  details  of  a  survey  most  lawyers  are  woefully 
ignorant.  The  business  man  who  can  judge  to  a  hair  the 
fulfillment  of  a  contract  has  no  eye  for  the  shortened  line 


RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  THE   SURVEYOR  89 

or  the  shifted  landmark.  To  the  skilled  accountant  of  the 
bank  the  traverse  sheet  is  a  closed  book.  Dishonesty  in 
ordinary  business  life  cannot  long  be  hid  and  errors  in 
accounts  quickly  come  to  light,  but  the  false  or  faulty 
survey  may  pass  unchallenged  through  the  years,  for  few 
but  the  Surveyor  himself  are  qualified  to  judge  it.  I 
maintain  that  in  the  hands  of  the  Surveyor,  to  an  excep- 
tional degree,  lie  the  honor  of  the  generations  past  and  the 
welfare  of  the  generations  to  come;  in  his  keeping  is  the 
Doomsday  Book  of  his  community,  and  who  shall  know  if 
he  is  false  to  his  trust?  Therefore  I  believe  that  to  every 
Surveyor  who  values  his  honor  and  has  a  full  sense  of  his 
duty  the  fear  of  error  is  a  perpetual  shadow  that  darkens 
the  sunlight. 

Yet  it  seems  to  me  that  to  a  man  of  active  mind  and 
high  ideals  the  profession  is  singularly  suited;  for  to  the 
reasonable  certainty  of  a  modest  income  must  be  added 
the  intellectual  satisfaction  of  problems  solved,  a  sense  of 
knowledge  and  power  increasing  with  the  years,  the  re- 
spect of  the  community,  the  consciousness  of  responsibility 
met  and  work  well  done.  It  is  a  profession  for  men  who 
believe  that  a  man  is  measured  by  his  work,  not  by  his 
purse,  and  to  such  I  commend  it. 


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